


When the Time Comes

by balancingdiet



Category: Magic Kaito, 名探偵コナン | Detective Conan | Case Closed
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, M/M, unrequited love... OR IS IT?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-02
Updated: 2020-08-02
Packaged: 2021-03-05 19:07:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 37,021
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25660369
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/balancingdiet/pseuds/balancingdiet
Summary: It took Shinichi a long time to realize the timer wasn’t the end of one’s freedom, but the start of learning how to love someone unexpected, literally, because the last person he thought his soulmate would be Kaitou KID.(Though at the rate he’s been going around being a detective maniac, he should consider himself lucky his soulmate isn’t a murderer or leader of some terrorist organisation.)As for Kaito? The only thing he realized was that, surprisingly, Hakuba could give pretty solid advice after all.(But he still sucks.)
Relationships: Kudou Shinichi | Edogawa Conan/Kuroba Kaito | Kaitou Kid
Comments: 32
Kudos: 411
Collections: kaishinbigbang 2020





	When the Time Comes

**Author's Note:**

> I am honoured to have [Luci](https://lantaniel.tumblr.com/) for my partner for this year's KaiShin BigBang and I got to work on her amazing prompt!  
>   
> Please check out and give some love to the [animation](https://lantaniel.tumblr.com/post/625299469740687360/my-art-for-the-kaishinbigbang-2020-d-fic-by) she has done!! And I hope this fic will do some justice for it.  
>   
> Enjoy!

In the world where Kudo Shinichi lived, all humans were born with a timer on their left wrist that countdown to the moment when they would meet their soulmate.

Everyone thought it was a generous gift from God, some kind of convenient device so people could experience lasting marriages and happily ever afters. But to Shinichi, the only few outcomes he found coming from the cursed timer were murders, pain and foolish despair. 

“S-So that’s why I killed her,” the murderer sniffed, casting a wry glance at the dead woman on the ground. “If she doesn’t want me to be her soulmate, then nobody else can.”

The sound of snapping cameras and flashes behind the police tapes intensified as the cuffed murderer was taken to the car. Shinichi could already imagine all the sensational headlines appearing tomorrow, sparking debates and splitting the world into two about how humans should or should not commit their life to the timer. But in a week or two later, he knew everyone would be back to fantasising and obsessing about the moment they would meet their destined half. It was a cycle he’d seen before. 

If there was another way for Shinichi to interpret the stupid timer, it would be counting down to the end of one’s freedom—ignoring other fateful encounters and hyper-fixing on the idea of that specific soulmate, as if no one else could provide the same happiness… It wasn’t even true; Ran’s parents were the proof of that.

Clicking his tongue, Shinichi ran a hand through his hair. No matter the facts, he still had to make sure these words were kept in his head till he died, or either way it would be Ran sending him personally to his grave.

A pat on his shoulder. It was Inspector Megure, after having sent the murderer away.

“Thanks for the hard work, Shinichi-kun,” Inspector Megure said, “and sorry that we have to postpone the helicopter ride again,” he ended off sheepishly, perhaps thinking it was the cause of Shinichi’s dampened mood. 

“No worries,” Shinichi said, managing to bite his tongue in time before he commented further. One innocent person had died and it seemed less than appropriate to admit he didn’t mind missing it to solve murder cases, especially when the victim’s parents were crying on the park bench not far away from them.

“Next time definitely,” Inspector Megure promised, before leaving to direct a couple of officers to clear the police tapes around the park and trees.

Returning to his thoughts, Shinichi flicked his gaze to his timer. He did a quick math and realized, to his mild surprise, that he’d be meeting his soulmate in a week's time. He suddenly regretted checking it.

_“At the rate you’re going around being a detective maniac, maybe your soulmate might actually be a criminal!”_

That was one of the many teases Ran told him as she started reminding him of his impending fate, even when he had _clearly_ stated to her before that he couldn’t be bothered (why would he be when the person he regarded as his soulmate was already right in front of his eyes?). Shinichi glanced at the police car and sighed. Given the statistics of his daily interactions, maybe Ran wasn’t wrong to make that guess.

Well, as for his childhood friend, her timer was still counting down and she would meet her soulmate a little later after Shinichi; she was _clearly_ excited for that day, and it didn’t make Shinichi feel any better when she had channelled some of her excitement in wondering how he would meet his soulmate too...

 _Forget it_ , Shinichi pocketed his hands and exited out of the park; flashes of red and blue lights from the police cars splashed across his broad back until he disappeared into the darkness.

* * *

The scowl on Aoko’s face disappeared as she looked up from Kaito’s phone, which she’d snatched from him when he was in the middle of reading the news. “Really?” She looked at him incredulously. “You’re just going to stay at home?”

Snatching his phone back, Kaito caught a last glimpse of the article before locking his phone. He had read enough of the same news anyway, about how bold and crazy Kaitou KID was as he planned to steal the Clock Tower tonight.

Bold was right, but he definitely wasn’t crazy about that.

“Of course.” Kaito rocked back against his chair as he looked up at Aoko with a grin. “I’m gonna sleep in early tonight.”

Aoko huffed over his desk and parted her lips, but no words came, having nothing else to say after her question was answered. Kaito tried not to feel bad for the lie; it was for the greater good anyway. Rather than sleeping at the time, he would be standing on the Clock Tower’s hand, writing the code and saving the—

“I hope you sleep real tight, Kuroba-kun,” Akako whispered into Kaito’s ear.

Kaito flinched in his seat. He rubbed the entire half of his face and ear and narrowed his eyes at the redhead in annoyance, half wondering if her voice came or her body materialised first.

“Don’t do that again,” he muttered.

Akako’s smirk grew bigger.

Oblivious to Akako’s creepy entrance, Aoko shook her head, her face still etched with doubt and worry. “But if Kaito stays at home...” Her blue eyes flicked to his phone and at Kaito’s left wrist, “How is he going to meet his soulmate?!”

 _What?_ Kaito blinked. _So that’s what she’s worried about?_ He thought Aoko had asked about his night plans because she wanted to know if he was going to see the last of the Clock Tower or something. But now that she said it… Kaito silently rubbed his wrist.

He had almost forgotten, even when Jii reminded him a few days ago.

 _“Are you sure you want to hold the heist near the hour when your timer ends?”_ Jii had asked worriedly behind the bar counter.

 _“That’s the only time and opportunity I have before the demolition contract is signed.”_ Kaito waved a hand. _“Besides it’s gonna be a quick one so there shouldn’t be a problem.”_

“It doesn’t matter if he’s at home,” Akako purred. “As long as fate has its plan his soulmate will come, even if the person has to pop right next to him in bed.”

Aoko giggled at the imagery. “That’s a little freaky.”

“It’s an understatement, Ahouko. It’s freaky _as_ hell.” Kaito scorned between the two. He decided to ignore Akako. “Anyway what about you?” Kaito asked Aoko back, “What are you doing tonight?”

“Keiko and I are going to the Clock Tower.” Aoko glanced over her shoulder, catching her friend's eyes as they waved at each other. “She said she doesn’t mind accompanying me to show some hate for the stupid thief.”

Kaito hummed, his poker face in place even with the twist in his gut. Though the annoying pain had grown lesser as the months went by, it was always there to remind him about the guilt he had yet to fix. 

Aoko’s head remained turned as Keiko seemed to be signalling her over to the group. She nodded before turning back to Kaito and Akako. “Anyway I’ll talk to you guys later!” Her finger wagged over Kaito’s face. “And remember to text me if you meet your soulmate!” 

“Are you my mother?”

“I’m your childhood friend so that’s enough of a reason.” Aoko stuck out her tongue, before skipping away to join the conversation with Keiko and her other friends. 

The silence lasted for two seconds before Akako decided to ruin it. “I am serious, you know.” Akako stared down at Kaito. There was a glint in her eyes that might make all the men in the room swoon, but all Kaito felt was discomfort. 

He unlocked his phone again, the article popping up on the screen. “Serious about what?” he asked, half-committed to the question.

“You shouldn’t go to the heist.”

“I already said I’m not.”

“I’m talking to Kaitou KID.” Akako leaned forward and tapped her nail on his phone’s screen. “Additionally,”—she then brushed a finger across Kaito’s wrist, to which he moved his hand away as though it was burnt—“your countdown coincides with the exact time when Lucifer said you’ll meet your fall; it’s dangerous for you to go. You should cancel your heist.”

“Um…” Kaito was leaning so far back away from Akako that he was nearly falling off his seat. Ironically, was this what Lucifer meant about the so-called fall, too? “But I’m not Kaitou KID.” 

Akako’s gaze turned even colder than possible. “If you die, Kuroba-kun, I hope your last thoughts are filled with me as you regret not heeding my words.”

“Sure.” Kaito gave a dry laugh and stared at his phone again, hoping it was the end of the conversation so Akako could leave. But sadly Kaito’s life was not as simple as that; Akako remained standing by his seat with crossed arms, though at least she wasn’t eyeing him like a hawk anymore. From his side-long glance he could tell she was staring at Aoko.

“A pity, isn’t it? That she’s not your soulmate.” Akako sighed. “I figured if there is one worthy rival of your attention, it would be her.”

Kaito fought back all the urge to not show the slightest bit of reaction. He continued scrolling through the article even though he was already sick of reading it.

“I wonder who’s your soulmate instead,” Akako continued. 

“Pretty sure it’s anyone better than you."

Akako laughed, which came as a surprise to Kaito. He was expecting more of a glare and a divine curse or something. “We shall see.” She smiled, and it looked seemingly real, too.

Kaito frowned. 

With that, Akako brushed her smooth hair off her shoulder and finally ambled away and out of the classroom. Suppressing a shiver until Akako was out of sight, Kaito stared at his phone again, the picture of the Clock Tower staring back at him. And only after a while did he give in to his temptation, to peek at his left wrist that was exposed out of his uniform sleeve.

It was strange how looking at the ticking numbers made him so much aware of the existence of time; 11 more hours to go before he would meet his soulmate. Honestly he’d rather it be the countdown when he would find Pandora and destroy it once and for all, though that wasn’t possible for this heist. The diamonds on the Clock Tower face were fake, and the real reason why he bothered with stealing it was because...

He cast a glance towards Aoko. She had her two hands fisted and punching enthusiastically in the air at that time, her mouth moving to form words that seemed close to her usual hate speech to KID.

This wasn't the first when Kaito used Kaitou KID to handle his personal problems and he foresaw it wouldn’t be the last. He knew he shouldn’t do it, shouldn’t intertwine the two lives he wanted to keep separate, but it was just so convenient for KID to do all the work when a civilian like Kuroba Kaito couldn’t. He only wondered if the convenience was worth the risks, and the devils and angels in his head weren't the only ones arguing about it as Jii’s indirect warnings surfaced in his memories too.

What if he actually encountered his soulmate while being Kaitou KID?

And what about the danger Akako mentioned? Well, that is if he should believe the witch’s words in the first place.

Whatever. What was the point of worrying when nothing had happened yet? _Don’t run before they chase you,_ his dad used to advise. 

So… might as well take a nap now, huh?

Pocketing his phone, Kaito stretched and laid his head atop of his crossed arms on his desk, letting Aoko’s voice in the background drown away until it was gone. 

* * *

Shinichi was fully aware of his reputation—a Shinigami bringing death and murders wherever he went, which was a pretty unfair statement to make, in his opinion. First of all not all crimes he encountered involved murder. And second, be it murder or not, not all of the victims died. 

Like this.

It wasn’t a murder this time.

Just an innocent, no-death heist. 

Interestingly Shinichi couldn’t recall the last time he’d been to a heist, or if he’d been to a heist at all. And to witness it during a helicopter ride? It would be an experience he could share if his parents called; something her mom might appreciate hearing than deaths every day. That was why when Inspector Megure asked the two pilots to change the route to avoid getting involved, Shinichi stopped him. He wanted to go. 

And so here he was, being _very_ involved as he instructed the officers and guards through the walkie-talkie he had borrowed from Inspector Megure: _Request for license number, seal off all exits, follow the thief into the vents..._

Even when Shinichi was sitting in his seat and doing the orders, there was something about the thief’s stealth and wits that pumped his heart with excitement he hadn’t found in a long time; Shinichi could take his time picking up the traces after the murderers finished the race, but this was one that he had to run along with the thief in order to play.

And finally, after all the twists and deceits, the challenger of the night was right behind the white screen, which he’d smartly hung over the clock’s face to trick all his audiences below. Even Shinichi for a short moment was fooled. But this was the end.

“Let me borrow this for a second,” Shinichi said, pulling the gun out of Inspector Megure’s brown coat. 

“Shinichi-kun?!”

Ignoring the Inspector, Shinichi steadied his aim and shot, hitting one of the four strings that held the screen in place. The bottom half of the screen began flapping against the wind coming from the helicopter. Shinichi found himself smiling unknowingly, being responsible for ruining the _magic_ as the crowd below faintly cheered after realizing what was happening. With three more shots he would tear this screen down and literally meet the man responsible for all of this behind the curtain. 

Shinichi aimed again, whilst ignoring Inspector Megure’s concerns behind him. But there was nothing to worry; he had this moment perfectly trained in Hawaii. 

He fired again.

Consequently, another two faint shots came, and before Shinichi knew it, the thief had jumped and fallen off the clock with the screen, both landing in the middle of the wild and frantic crowd. 

_Damn it!_ Shinichi clicked his tongue. It was a lost case to try finding the thief amongst the hundreds of people...

Popping back inside the helicopter, Shinichi slumped onto his seat, the adrenaline still rushing up and through his head. He glanced at the gun in his hand.

Did he also just assist the thief in escaping?

A static came from the walkie-talkie and a loud voice boomed in the helicopter. _“Megure! Is it you who fired those shots?!”_

Inspector Megure winced on the seat beside Shinichi. “Well...”

Rounds of complaints later, the pissed Inspector finally climbed back into the tower, saying he would send them the picture of the code the thief had left on the clock face. As Inspector Megure booted up the computer to check the email, Shinichi returned his gun to him.

“Thanks Inspector Megure,” Shinichi said.

He shook his head. “Never do that again, Shinichi-kun.”

Shinichi laughed, but when he saw how strained and serious Inspector Megure’s face suddenly was, he felt obliged to promise, even though he knew he’d break it in the end—

“Shinichi-kun,” Inspector Megure gasped.

This seemed more serious than he thought. “Yes?”

“Your timer.” The Inspector swallowed and pointed a finger to Shinichi’s left wrist. “It’s zero.”

* * *

This was insane. Like _really_ insane. 

Whoever the joker that shot from the helicopter was... Kaito cringed as he rubbed his shoulder, swerving his way through and out of the crowd that had gathered around the flattened screen, all of them poking underneath hopefully to see if Kaitou KID was around.

It didn’t matter who that joker was for now; KID was already done and long gone and Kuroba Kaito had one last mission to do. And if he missed this chance...

Thankfully most of his fans, saved for the diehard ones that were around the screen, had dispersed, knowing the show was long over. Even so, there were still a lot of faces that Kaito had to scan through to find that one person in mind. Changing tactics, his eyes darted across the boards and banners in the air, and he spotted it—a simple white sign with a red cross over his signature Kaitou KID logo.

Kaito ran, ignoring the pain in his legs as he found Aoko alone and looking at the Clock Tower with a sad, sad smile on her face. He grinned instead, knowing with three steps more and a flick of his wrist, he would change her expression to the like of his.

“I’m Kuroba Kaito, nice to meet you,” Kaito chimed.

Aoko lifted her chin and gasped, and with her own brand of magic, the chatters and shuffling from everyone around them faded into the background.

“Kaito?! Why are you...” Aoko’s voice trailed off as she took the rose and twirled it in her hand almost shyly. “You remembered.”

(It was then Kaito knew he was glad he wasn’t Aoko’s soulmate; she was better off with someone else than him—someone who wouldn’t lie to her, someone who would stay by her side forever, and someone who wasn’t… Kaitou KID. But even if Kaito couldn’t make her happy as her soulmate, it didn’t mean he couldn’t make her happy as her childhood friend.)

“Of course I do, _Ahouko_.” 

Aoko’s smile stayed, but in an instant after she lowered her gaze, her eyes widened almost in akin to what he imagined her to look like if she knew about the truth of his—

“Kaito!” Aoko exclaimed and grabbed his elbow. 

_Ow._ Kaito managed to hide his shoulder aches and showed only puzzlement at Aoko’s change. “What?”

“Your timer!” Aoko shook his limp arm like a doll. 

Kaito blinked. 

There, on the wrist of his left hand was a big, red zero.

* * *

“You seriously don’t know who your soulmate is?!”

Shinichi sighed, keeping his gaze focused on the sports hall in front of their arena seats. It had been two weeks since Shinichi discovered the end of his timer, similarly it being the last time he had his peace; he had tried to keep his wrist hidden under his school uniform to avoid having to talk about it, but it was still inevitable in the end. Ran knew, his parents knew, almost everyone at the Metropolitan Police knew, and even Sonoko knew too now.

“Yes, I don’t know who my soulmate is.” Shinichi checked his watch. _Fifteen more minutes before the tournament starts…_

Sonoko shook her head in disapproval. “Can’t you use your detective sense and figure it out? I’m sure you’d guess it in less than ten minutes.” 

Shinichi shrugged. “Maybe this is part of fate’s intention.” Ironically he didn’t think or believe in that, but if it could stop people from talking about his timer, he might consider using this excuse forever.

“Ran’s right; you really don’t care. What a wasted opportunity.” Sonoko looked depressed, as if she was the one who had missed the chance-meeting with her soulmate. It was also a little weird at the same time to see her concerned over his life when the only subject and interest they had in common was Ran.

When Shinichi thought the conversation was over, Sonoko continued, “I was hoping you’ll find your soulmate so you can move on from Ran too.”

Shinichi blinked. He turned his neck robotically towards Sonoko. “What?”

Sonoko rolled her eyes. “You use your observation skills to solve crimes while I use mine to deduce love-sick people; we tap on our similar strengths in different areas.”

Ignoring Sonoko, Shinichi checked his watch again. Twelve more minutes? Why was time passing so damn slow?

Sonoko scoffed. “Are you seeing the time when Ran is going to meet her soulmate?” 

Shinichi flinched, but he quickly cleared his throat and crossed his arms, his gaze fixated on the sports hall again. He had almost forgotten about the existence of Ran’s timer and her recent amplified excitement for the past few days (because why the hell would he want to think about that?).

Aside from her Karate tournament, today was also the day Ran would meet her soulmate.

“I’m not,” Shinichi half-admitted. It was true at the start, but now that Sonoko reminded him, his eyes began scanning across the hall; the judges were in their place and some volunteers and referees were giving the floor mat a last check… Anyone at this given point of time could be Ran’s soulmate, and he squinted his eyes, trying to catch a glimpse of their wrist, but with this distance it was a pointless effort. 

Sonoko sighed and patted softly on Shinichi’s shoulder. “For your sake and Ran’s, I suggest that you should work on finding your soulmate.”

“I don’t want _or_ need to.”

“But what if your soulmate _wants_ to find you?”

As possible as it seemed, Shinichi surprisingly never thought of that. He shrugged, also removing Sonoko’s hand off his shoulder. “Then it’s over.”

“Heartless.” Sonoko glared. “You’re _heartless_.” 

“I heard you the first time.”

“Thought you need to hear it twice so it gets through your head.”

The sudden cheers and claps around the stadium saved Shinichi from having to reply. They then fell into mutual silence, waiting patiently/eagerly in their own style before the announcer called out Ran’s name, and they immediately fell in sync as they clapped their hands until they were red and sore. As much as how Shinichi couldn’t stand Sonoko sometimes, her genuine enthusiasm for Ran was enough to replace those feelings. Hopefully in the long run.

As Ran skipped out from the entrance and towards her assigned mat, she glanced around the crowd and spotted them and her other Karate club members in their seats. She lifted her left arm to wave, and for a brief moment Shinichi saw her timer as clear as day.

Five more seconds. 

And then Ran stopped, her focus now on the referee assigned to her mat. The male referee, too, was looking at her with a gaze that spelt more than just a simple stare. 

On the cue, they lifted their left wrist and showed it to each other, and the smiles that split across their faces were more paralleled than anything Shinichi had seen.

True to what Sonoko said, her self-proclaimed observation skills did do some of its job. She squealed and pulled onto Shinichi’s arm. “Ohmygod! Do you think— Could it be?!”

Shinichi pursed his lips. 

“Yeah,” he said. 

If Shinichi believed in the Alternate Universe, he would imagine a world where humans could live without a timer dictating them to; they would be free to love whoever they want and either learn a lesson or earn a partner for life. And in that world, he imagined having the chance to tell Ran the things he wanted to say and bring her to many aquarium and Tropical Land dates without any sort of emotional baggage or implications... He could imagine many other things in that Alternate Universe, but it all came back down to one thing—it was all an imagination, and he was still here as Kudo Shinichi in _this_ world, sitting on the arena seat and watching the love of his life being happy with somebody else. 

There were times when Shinichi wanted to defy fate and make things work his way with Ran. But he knew, deep down in his not-so-heartless heart, that this brave leap of faith needed more than just his hands to clap.

Because if Ran liked what fate had in store for her, then who was he to take her choice and happiness away?

* * *

_Kudo Shinichi strikes again — Detective of the East solves another murder this week._

Kaito scrolled through his phone, skipping past all the gruesome details about the horrible murder until he reached a picture of Kudo Shinichi standing alongside with a couple of other police officers. He zoomed in into the picture and squinted his eyes, trying to see even a glimpse of the detective’s wrist—

“Kudo Shinichi?”

Kaito turned, eyes wide as he stared at Aoko directly behind him. “Ahouko! Are you trying to scare the hell out of me?”

Aoko snickered as she pulled her chair and sat across Kaito’s table. “Blame it on how you’re always so engrossed in your phone,” she said before gesturing her chin to his phone screen. “This is the fourth time I see you reading about Kudo Shinichi and not Kaitou KID during our break. Are you... interested in him?”

“Of course not.” Kaito tapped out of the image so he could pretentiously scroll through the article. “I’m just reading the news and discovering how terribly broken our society is.”

“Then why do I not see you ever interested in _my_ news, Kuroba?”

Kaito inwardly groaned and turned, to find Hakuba standing next to his table, with broad arms crossed and a condescending smile on his face. Thank heavens Akako was marked absent for today. Less pain and horror for Kaito to handle. 

“Let me correct myself: Maybe I’m _indeed_ a little interested in this Kudo Shinichi.” Kaito eyed Hakuba up and down. “Because it seems to me he’s the only person capable of sabotaging like, um, 11% of KID’s plans?” Make it 70%, actually, but Kaito had bruised his pride enough by admitting such a stupid thing aloud, even for the sake of annoying Hakuba.

Aoko slammed a hand on the table. “Are you saying my dad is not capable?!”

Kaito winced, almost forgetting about Inspector Nakamori. “Uh—”

“How did you know that Kudo Shinichi was involved in a KID’s heist?” Hakuba asked, ironically saving Kaito when he least expected it. 

“Aoko heard from her dad and told me about it; the Clock Tower heist.” Kaito grudgingly looked out of their classroom window. “She even mentioned about sending him a stupid fan letter.”

That put Aoko’s mood back to usual. “Now that you remind me, I’m definitely going to do that soon.” She fiddled with her fingers, as though she was playing with an invisible stalk of rose. “The Clock Tower is still there thanks to him after all,” she said with a smile at the end.

Could the day get any worse?

“Speaking of the Clock Tower heist, it’s _the_ day, no?” Hakuba bent forward to check Kaito’s wrist. “But I heard from Akako-san when I was in London that you failed to meet your soulmate.”

Ah. It seemed the day _really_ could get worse. 

Kaito crossed his arms, hiding both wrists under his armpits; because he could be childish like that.

Hakuba turned to Aoko. “Is it true?”

Aoko sighed. “He—”

“It’s none of your business,” Kaito drawled. 

“So it’s true then.” Hakuba smiled, having come to the conclusion based on whatever detective senses he had. “Though I’m hardly surprised since you must be very _busy_ at that time.” 

_This guy…_

“Rather than sleeping, Kaito ended up going to the heist because he’s still a loyal fan of KID in the end.” Aoko rolled her eyes at that, before whipping a 180 degree change of expression as she shook her head and casted Kaito a pitiful look. “But really, the crowd was _insane_. I was busy avoiding getting trampled the entire time so it’s no wonder Kaito would miss his timer too.”

It was nice seeing Aoko defending him but Kaito knew it was pointless anyway; Hakuba and Aoko’s interpretations of him being _busy_ were already different in the first place, and Kaito could confirm that when he heard a little snort coming from Hakuba’s stupid nose. 

Despite it all, Hakuba proceeded to add on to Aoko’s supposing tragic narrative of Kaito’s life: “You can say it’s one of the flaws of the timer. One wouldn’t know who exactly their soulmate is unless both of them were aware of their count to the very last second _and_ admitted to the other person about it.” Hakuba nodded his head in enlightenment before copying that same, pitiful look Aoko gave Kaito earlier. “How sad and careless of you, Kuroba.”

 _Screw you._ Kaito couldn’t roll his eyes even further behind his head. He also had enough talk about _his_ timer and would like to move on, thank you very much.

“Yes yes. How careless of me,” Kaito chimed. “So Ahouko,” he continued, interrupting the moment before she could provide her condolences to his pity party or some sort, “you better be aware of your surroundings at all times when your countdown is nearing zero. If you missed yours, I’m not gonna be your soulmate’s replacement.”

The change in topic worked as Aoko leaned in and attempted to punch Kaito’s shoulder, but he dodged perfectly. “I don’t want you to be anyway!” she huffed. 

Her words hurt him a little even though Kaito had prepared himself for it; but the feeling wasn’t as bad as he thought. He showed a perfect grin anyway.

Hakuba, too, was also smiling as he pressed a hand over his chest, the usual pose he would do before he wanted to say something _charming_. “I can’t promise to be your replacement since I’ve yet to meet mine, but I’ll do my best to help you find the person for you.”

Aoko thanked Hakuba for the offer before sneering back at Kaito. “But don’t worry, I won’t miss mine for anything. And definitely not for KID.”

“Ah, that reminds me”—Hakuba stroked his chin thoughtfully—“I heard from some of my police colleagues that Kudo Shinichi’s missed his timer count when he was at the heist too.”

Kaito’s eyes widened. 

And the world stopped still. 

Then, after what seemed like a million seconds later, Aoko gasped. “That’s some serious coincidence.” 

“I’m barely Kudo Shinichi’s acquaintance and this is just a rumour I heard so I wouldn’t entirely believe in it. But I thought of sharing it to comfort you, at least.” Hakuba eyed over at Kaito. “I don’t know if Kudo Shinichi found his soulmate or not, but if he didn’t…” He smiled. “Then it seems you’re not the only one who had prioritised KID over the chance of meeting their soulmates.”

No.

_Oh, no._

Whilst groaning in his head, Kaito kept his poker face perfect on the outside, his eyes staring down at his temporarily forgotten phone during the midst of this so-called conversation. A secret nobody knew, Kaito had actually long ago memorised the exact second when he would meet his soulmate, so easily counting back the time, he knew the person got to be someone on the helicopter; the moment when it came close to the screen, reaching within the range that allowed the timer to work. 

So yes, Kaito suspected it already. And he knew there were four people in the helicopter, one of which was Kudo Shinichi, the most likely candidate (and the one who probably shot at him). Still, Kaito decided to take his investigation slowly, thinking maybe it _might_ not be the _detective_ and perhaps… one of the pilots? 

Yeah, because pilots are better than detectives. 

Kaito glared sideways at Hakuba and inwardly thanked the blonde for the inevitable stereotype, at the same time for bursting Kaito’s hopeful bubble. One would think it was better to know the truth earlier, but there was also this saying “Ignorance is Bliss”; and Kaito wanted the bliss to last for as long as possible.

Before Aoko could say a word, Kaito stood up from his seat and pocketed his phone. “I’m going to the toilet,” he announced for the sake of it and trudged out of the classroom. 

When Kaito was sure he was out of their sight, he made a frantic dash down the corridor and all the way until he was out in the school field. It wasn’t enough for him to forget about the existence of his timer, but it was enough to keep Kudo Shinichi out of his head for a while.

* * *

As much as Shinichi wanted the best for Ran, he couldn’t help but wish her soulmate wasn’t all that perfect. He didn’t have to be an asshole or a criminal; just a couple of cracks or dents in his personality, like having the tendency to chew his food aloud or being often late for their dates. But no. The only complaint Ran ever had for her soulmate was his tendency to take things too seriously, which at times also made her laugh and find him cute so it wasn’t exactly a bad thing either.

And when Ran laughed during all her story-telling during breaks in school, Shinichi found no enzymes in him to even smile along.

It wasn’t once or twice when Sonoko reminded Shinichi he should be happy seeing Ran happy, but this wasn’t something he could do as easily as solving crimes. He only wished he had the energy to pretend to be happy, at least, and it wasn’t just for Ran but his own sake; the last thing he needed was for Ran to confront him about his mood.

Like now. 

“Shinichi, do you... like me?” 

(It was too late for regrets.)

No warnings. No filters. Just straight-out asking the question.

Shinichi robotically turned and glance at Ran beside him, noticing her eyes still lowered on the ground since they stepped out of their school gates; she probably had missed the orange-dusted sky littered with pretty, thick clouds, and the golden shimmers and sparkles coming from the riverbank by their pathway. Perhaps it was best if Ran didn’t notice. This was the worst moment for Mother Nature to decide and make everything around them look so romantic anyway.

If Ran had asked before she met her soulmate—before things started to grow tense between them lately—maybe Shinichi would give himself two seconds to consider replying a _yes_. But there was no doubt Ran was only looking and hoping for one answer from him, and it was definitely not the truth he wanted to say.

He had already lost his future with Ran. He didn’t want to lose their friendship too.

Keeping his walking pace steady and constant, Shinichi hummed. “You mean liking you as a friend?” 

Ran didn’t buy his ignorance. “No. I mean… Yes, yes we’re friends. But I’m asking if you like me more than that.”

“Why are you suddenly—”

“Answer me Shinichi,” Ran urged.

Shinichi swallowed a sigh. “What happens if my answer is no?” 

“We’ll continue to stay as friends of course.” 

“And yes?" 

A brief hesitance flashed past Ran’s face and she bit her lower lip so hard it grew white, like the knuckles that were clenched around the grip of her school bag. She lowered her eyes again.

“If you do like me… we’ll continue to stay as friends too.” 

As though Mother Nature knew, a chilly breeze blew by and rendered Shinichi’s heart even colder than possible. It was comforting to know Ran would still treat him as a friend, but he was smart enough to know he shouldn’t test his luck, shouldn’t push it to prove whether what Ran said was true. Even if he couldn’t wish Ran all the happiness from the bottom of his heart, the least he could do was to _not_ make her unhappy. 

Taking in a deep breath, Shinichi let out the loudest laugh he could muster. 

Ran stared at him.

“Silly question, but to answer, of course I do like you only _as_ a friend.” Shinichi sniffed and wiped an invisible, laughing tear off an eye. “How can there be more?”

Ran nearly missed a step, but she quickly caught it back as she turned towards Shinichi with a face that looked as hopeful as the time her parents nearly reconciled. “Really?”

Shinichi raised an eyebrow. “Do you want it to be otherwise?”

“No! I mean, no.” Ran smiled, her cheeks now basked in red from her blush rather than the setting sun. She brushed a hair behind her ear. “I just thought ever since I met Haruto you’ve…”

“Changed?”

“More than changed,” Ran scoffed, her usual self slowly slipping back on. “You always act like he’s a criminal or something.”

Shinichi couldn’t blame anyone if he had made it too obvious. He shrugged, switching his school bag from one hand to another. “I guess I have to work on that.”

“You better.” Ran punched against his shoulder lightly. She continued her teases for a little while more before her face fell lax and her arm was swung back to her side. “But if you don’t like me,” Ran began, her features turned solemn, “why don’t you want to find your soulmate?”

Dealing with so many criminals in the past, Shinichi should know one lie would always lead to another, no matter the case. But he failed to remember that warning, failed to register his thoughts and let his egoistic words take over and spill out of his tongue. 

“Who says I don’t want to?” 

At the same time Shinichi closed his eyes for a millisecond, cursing himself. _Crap, what am I saying?_

“You want to?” Ran brightened. “But Sonoko said…”

Now he cursed Sonoko in his head. “What did Sonoko tell you?”

Ran waved a hand, dismissing her slip-up (which Shinichi wished he could do too). “Never mind that. How’s the search going?”

 _Non-existent,_ Shinichi thought wryly and shrugged. “It’s hard once you miss the opportunity but I’m… working on it.” He bit his inner cheeks. Damnit. Maybe he should just stop talking.

“It’s high time that you put your skills on _yourself_ besides solving murders.” Ran smiled and bumped her shoulder against Shinichi’s. “But even if I don’t have the skills like yours, I’ll definitely try to help you with as much as I can.” 

“You don’t have to.”

“Why not?”

“So you can spend more time with your boyfriend.” Shinichi cringed. Did he really just say that? He couldn’t believe how far he would go to ruin his pride just to sustain a lie.

Ran rolled her eyes. “I’m your best friend and if I’m not going to help you, who will?”

 _Who will, huh?_ Shinichi mustered a smile in response, half considering if he should just roll off the path and into the riverbank. But this “confrontation” was worth it, he guessed, as their conversation returned to just as light and perfect as it used to be, before the time when the existence and idea of the cursed timer even mattered to them.

* * *

The only time Kaito printed and kept newspaper clippings like some kind of cliché Shonen protagonist was a while after he became the ghost of the Phantom Thief. He had dug up all the news about the original Kaitou KID, about his father, and about everything that could possibly lead to his death. Then when he discovered the existence of Snake and the dumbass myth, he started researching on Pandora and the Volley Comet, and everything that could bring him a step closer towards bringing down the organisation.

And now... this.

For the record at least this scrapbook Kaito used was much smaller than what he had made for the more serious matters. And maybe not all of the newspapers he’d clipped was _because_ of Kudo Shinichi; there were some cases that intrigued Kaito enough to cut it out even when there were no pictures of the said detective and his wrist. 

But if Aoko, or Hakuba… or basically anyone saw his _artwork_ , he knew they would insist it was all about Kudo Shinichi anyway. 

Kaito closed the scrapbook and dumped it—along with the materials he had used—into the box he kept under his table. He had done enough cutting and pasting for the day and he should start on the planning for his next heist. He left his desk and flopped onto his bed, pulling out his phone. It was the weekends and Jii’s bar might be crowded so it was best to call rather than drop by uninvited. 

Just as Kaito was scrolling through his contacts, his phone chimed with Aoko’s name and a picture of her digging her nose on his screen. He grinned at that before sitting up to answer. Weekends also meant Aoko would call him to hang out, or make requests for his time to perform a short magic show at the hospital she was volunteering at. He didn’t mind for either one, though if only he hadn’t had a heist coming soon.

“Yo—”

_“Kaito! Are you free now?”_

“Depends on why you are asking.” 

Kaito could imagine Aoko rolling her eyes on the other side of the phone. _“I want you to meet someone.”_

That was unexpected for the call. Kaito straightened up on his bed. “...Who?”

He didn’t know how or why, but his voice must have given something away as Aoko laughed. _“Not my soulmate, Bakaito. We’ve counted, remember? I’m only going to meet that person when I’m in college.”_

“Uh, yeah. I remember.” How could he forget? Kaito cleared his throat, reigning the conversation back to his control. “So who is it?” 

_“You’ll know when we meet. I’ll text you the place.”_

“I didn’t say I’m free.”

_“Judging by how you’re talking so much means you are.”_

“That’s not how you interpret people’s schedule, Ahouko.” 

_“I’ll see you later!”_

“Hey—”

Aoko cut the call.

Kaito sighed and stretched out of his bed to grab his jacket off his chair. This wasn’t the first time he procrastinated with his heist’s planning and neither would it be his last, but either way Kaito wouldn’t be able to focus on anything if his curiosity wasn’t satisfied; just who was the person Aoko wanted him to meet? 

A notification pinged on his phone and it was the promised address from Aoko. Huh. Somewhere near... Beika? 

Beika, also the district where Shinichi lived (bless the internet for the info). 

Kaito frowned, his eyes slowly moving down from his phone and onto his wrist, the red zero staring back at him. 

_Nah_ , he flung his jacket over his shoulder and walked out of his room. Aoko could be determined in anything, but getting to pull off a meeting with the famous Kudo Shinichi might be something out of the question. 

* * *

Ever since Ran started dating Haruto it was almost impossible for Shinichi to see her during weekends; they used to hang out together, or at least attempted to before a shriek came in an hour into their meal or shopping, followed by finding a very dead body on the floor. But even _so_ , they were still together in each other's company and presences, and Shinichi had thought it was all that mattered.

That is, until he heard Ran talking about her fun dates with Haruto—especially when they were never interrupted. At some point Shinichi began wondering if everything he had assumed was just in his head, and maybe Ran was never as happy as he was.

Regardless, it still wouldn’t change the fact Ran and Haruto were soulmates, and that they had planned to go to Tropical Land today, as what Shinichi was told during one of their lunch breaks. Which was why when he received a text message earlier from Ran, asking him to come to the cafe they often met, he wondered if something was wrong.

Or right?

Was their date cancelled? Why was it cancelled? Did they have a fight? Was there a reason why Ran texted him instead of calling? Maybe she cried and couldn’t speak? But why would she cry? Could it be that they broke up? Did Haruto hurt Ran? Shinichi clenched his fists, his strides turned faster and faster as he made his way from home. 

Shinichi would never forgive Haruto if he hurt Ran. 

Buildings passed, Shinichi found and entered the cafe.

“Table for?” A waitress asked after giving her greetings by the entrance. 

Shinichi scrutinised the waitress, guessing she must be new; all the usual employees knew he was a regular, and his usual companion was already somewhere in the cafe. He dismissed her with a hand and glanced around. “I’m—” 

There he found Ran, her face all smiley and bright that it took a second for him to register that yes, that was indeed Ran; he was expecting a crying and tear-stained face, but she looked too happy to be, what’s more when she wasn’t alone. 

After Shinichi told the waitress he found his table, he slowly ambled his way, catching glimpses of the other two people sitting opposite Ran in the booth. There was a girl and a guy and both of them looked similar to their age, but Shinichi had no idea who they were. 

“Ran?” Shinichi said after stepping to the side of the table.

In the midst of whatever conversation they had, the three of them turned.

Then the guy, who was in the midst of drinking a glass of water, choked, spitting water out through his nose and mouth and all onto the table.

Shinichi stepped back, horrified when some specks got onto his shirt.

”Bakaito!” The girl beside him yelped and grabbed the napkin off the holder before slapping it onto his face. “Please don’t embarrass me,” she chided and used the remaining napkins to clean the table.

“Are you okay?” Ran asked in concern.

“Y-Yeah I’m—” The guy coughed. “I’m, um, okay.” 

“What’s going on?” Shinichi asked Ran. 

“Sit down first.” Ran stretched and pulled Shinichi down, forcing him to sit inside the booth and opposite of the guy, his face now red from trying to hold back his chokes. 

“So sorry about this.” The girl sent a sheepish smile and plucked some napkins for Shinichi too. 

Shinichi took it and dapped it over his shirt. “It’s alright,” Shinichi said and glanced at the guy. What else could he say anyway?

“Before we start let me do the introduction,” Ran began. “This is Nakamori Aoko and Kuroba Kaito,” Ran introduced the girl and guy respectively before gesturing a hand to Shinichi. “And this is Kudo Shinichi.”

“We totally know who he is,” Nakamori squealed, her hands now clasped together tightly over the table. And if that didn’t show her eagerness enough, her big smile on her face definitely did. 

Kuroba’s face was blank as he tossed the used napkins onto the table.

Ran laughed. “Figured as much, that’s why I hid his real identity on the app, in case it’s some fan instead of—” 

“Wait a minute.” Shinichi blinked over to Ran. The last thing Shinichi liked to feel was confused, which he already was the moment he entered the cafe. “App? What app? What are you talking about?”

“Calm down,” Ran hushed.

“I’m calm.”

“You sounded like you caught the wrong murderer or something.”

Yes, because the last thing Shinichi liked to feel was being wrong too; when he’d thought Haruto and Ran... Basically Shinichi hated feeling a lot of things, and this entire meeting was all of it. 

“I guess I’m not the only one out of the loop,” Kuroba spoke for the first time in a proper sentence. His eyes were lowered to what Shinichi assumed was his hands, and both of them were hidden under the table. Shinichi glimpsed at Nakamori’s wrist, noticing her timer was still counting down.

And then it clicked. 

“Is that app you said some kind of soulmate tracker?” Shinichi drawled and gestured his head to Kuroba. “And you found that he’s my soulmate?” 

“How did you figure it out so fast?” Nakamori’s eyes lit up before bumping Kuroba’s shoulder with her own. “He’s indeed the Detective of the East!” 

Kuroba looked like he wanted to die.

“Yes, exactly that app,” Ran said. “Haruto introduced it to me and I’ve seen a lot of positive reviews, so I thought I’d help you sign up since I know you obviously won’t.”

“You know me so well,” Shinichi muttered. _And thanks a_ lot _, Haruto._

Ran rolled her eyes and pulled out her phone to show Shinichi the app. “It’s so easy and convenient to use. All you need is to type in the location and time when your timer hits zero and it will sieve out the other users that experienced the same.” Ran then smiled at the other two. “Kuroba-san is the only match.”

Nakamori nodded animatedly. “Actually we heard from our classmate about you too, Kudo-kun, that your timer struck zero around the same time as Kaito, but... we didn’t expect the one we’re meeting today is actually _you_.”

Shinichi raised an eyebrow. He knew he was famous, but he didn’t expect his affair to spread to people he didn’t know.

Before Shinichi could ask who their classmate was, Ran leaned forward and whispered fervently to Aoko, as if he couldn’t hear her loud and clear beside her, “Truth to be told I always expected Shinichi’s soulmate to be a criminal.” She then glanced at Kuroba. “But I guess I’m wrong about this." 

Kuroba laughed nervously.

 _“But what if your soulmate_ wants _to find you?”_

Despite dismissing Sonoko’s words without batting an eyelid before, Shinichi still remembered them, though he didn’t allow it to bother him as much as Ran already did. Shinichi understood, even if he disliked the idea of trusting a timer to meet their destined ones, that didn’t mean his soulmate wasn’t allowed to have his or her own fantasies—Like Ran, because she deserved to be happy for believing in what she wanted to believe, as much as he hated it too.

But judging from Kuroba’s last sentence and the constant squirming in his seat, it didn’t take a quarter of Shinichi’s brain cell to know it was Nakamori that signed him up as a user, just like what Ran did for him. So maybe, just maybe… this Kuroba guy might actually be sharing the same thoughts in regards to the timer as him.

If that was the case, this meeting might end way earlier than Shinichi liked it to be. 

“That’s why,” Ran continued, her face beaming proudly as she kept her phone. “We figured you and Kuroba-kun could actually be soul—”

“About the location you keyed in: you only indicated it’s some kind of heist, right?”

Frowning at Shinichi’s interruption, Ran nodded 

Nakamori nodded too. “It’s Kaitou KID. He’s the thief that held that heist.”

Ah, so that’s his name? It would save Shinichi some time to research. “The location is pretty generic, actually.” Shinichi wondered aloud and turned to Kuroba across the table. “Where exactly were you then?” 

Kuroba glanced up, his eyes wide and unblinking. “Uh, in the crowd,” he finally said, though having taken three unnecessary seconds to reply to such a simple and obvious question, Shinichi noted.

Biting back a smirk, Shinichi leaned against his seat with crossed arms (might as well ask for the drumrolls if he could). “Then it means we _aren’t_ soulmates.”

“What?” the two girls said in union. 

“The timer works in a way when our soulmate is in close proximity, but I was in the helicopter and never near the crowd.”

Ran showed him a look of disapproval. “You could’ve told me earlier so we don’t have to waste other people’s time,” she gritted out through her teeth.

Truth to be told Shinichi didn’t think there would be such coincidence, though yes, it was still stupid of him to _not_ expect an app like this to exist for Ran to make use of it in his stead. “You could’ve told me about the app before you keyed in the details yourself,” Shinichi muttered back.

Ran flicked a finger at Shinichi’s knee. He scowled and grudgingly rubbed the pain away while Ran showed an apologetic smile towards the other two. “So sorry, for making you two come down for nothing.”

“No worries about it. We can take it as a chance to meet our idol.” Nakamori grinned. “We’ve become your fans since the night you ruined KID’s plans; you saved the Clock Tower for us.” She then nudged the side of Kuroba's stomach. He grunted in reply. 

Shinichi drummed his fingers on his knee and glanced between his two newfound _fans_. Not that he didn’t enjoy fame, but going by his principles, Shinichi only takes credits where credit’s due; and saving the Clock Tower, as what Nakamori and Kuroba started liking him for, was not to his credit. But he hesitated as he parted his lips, wondering if explaining the truth would make a difference. This Kaitou KID... Even if he was the one that saved his own prize, he was still a criminal, wasn’t he? And besides, if Ran knew the truth, Shinichi could imagine the long rants and lecture of her disbelief—on the fact that he’d gotten into the mess of missing his soulmate for absolutely nothing.

But his dilemma didn’t last as Ran spoke, “Hold on a second.” Her frown was back. “If you were on the helicopter the entire time, doesn’t that mean your soulmate is one of the people on it?” 

“No. The pilot and Inspector Megure already met theirs. The co-pilot still has some time to go,” Shinichi said, remembering how the three of them had eagerly explained about the state of timer before he even asked; not that he suspected any of them to be his soulmate anyway. 

Because if he spent just ten seconds dedicating his mind to think about it—

Nakamori put a hand over her mouth. “Then is your soulmate Kaitou KID?!”

Shinichi blinked. 

Ran slapped a hand over her eyes like she wasn’t sure whether to laugh or cry. “So I’m right in the end! Your soulmate is _indeed_ a criminal after all.”

Kuroba cleared his throat loudly over the table. “I don’t think we should make assumptions like this.” 

“That’s unlike you to say such a thing,” Nakamori raised an eyebrow. “Or is it because you can’t bear to see _both_ of your idols being soulmates together?”

Shinichi raised an eyebrow. _Both of his idols?_

“I’m just saying since we have no evidence that KID’s timer hit zero,” Kuroba retorted.

Nakamori snickered. “Now you sound like Hakuba-kun.” 

Kuroba rolled his eyes and pretended to barf.

Ran sighed and casted Shinichi a pitying look. “This is a dead end, isn’t it?” She gave Kuroba the same look. “What are you _two_ going to do now?”

Shinichi had plenty of answers, but he couldn’t say any of them since none were the ones Ran wanted to hear. Still it was a good question, a question that gave Shinichi the opportunity to end this for now. 

“How is this the dead end when we haven’t reinvestigated the scene?” Shinichi nodded over to Kuroba. “Don’t you think so?”

The three of them blinked at Shinichi in perfect sync. 

“I guess, yeah,” Kuroba said slowly, his expression back to its perfect blank state, which also said a lot about his skills when Shinichi had tons of experiences reading off criminals’ faces and exposing their secrets more than their mouth did. 

Shinichi then stood up and gestured to Kuroba to follow, which he did, much to Shinichi’s relief. “Shall we work together to find our soulmates?” 

Nakamori gasped while Ran stared at Shinichi sceptically. 

“Like... now?” Kuroba said.

“Yes.” 

“Can we tag along?” 

Shinichi managed an apologetic smile at Nakamori. “It’s better not to. Too many distractions.”

Ran crossed her arms. “You’re not going to run off solving murders instead, are you?”

Indeed Ran wasn’t called Shinichi’s childhood friend for nothing. “C’mon, Ran. Have some faith in me.”

Before Ran could say another word, Shinichi raised a hand in the form of a goodbye and strode out of the cafe, with Kuroba following him quietly behind. With a last glance back, the two girls were still sitting inside the booth, their focus now on each other as they were chatting on what Shinichi believed was about them. It didn’t matter, as long as he was finally out and not suffocating under the conversation about his mystery soulmate or timer. 

Shinichi continued walking down the streets, glancing back occasionally to see Kuroba still behind him, though his primary motive was to check if Ran or Nakamori made any attempts to follow them. After a couple of minutes more Shinichi halted, stopping outside what seemed like a furniture shop. Not having to signal Kuroba, the latter followed him inside.

An employee greeted them before her eyes glanced past both of their wrists. “Are you here to shop for your future home?” Her smile grew bigger.

“What—”

“Yes,” Shinichi interrupted. “But we’re just going to take a look.”

The employee nodded before walking off.

Kuroba harrumphed. “I didn’t know we have a home together.”

“It’s a lie, obviously.”

“Right.” Kuroba brushed a thumb across his timer. He turned to look at the rows of couches in front of them. “Then what are we doing here? I doubt we can find any clues—”

“ _Everything_ is a lie,” Shinichi said.

It was like watching his words literally sinking in through Kuroba’s eyes. “Oh.” Kuroba lowered his gaze. “ _Oh_ ,” he repeated again, this time with more clarity.

“It’s not like we’re soulmates so there’s no issue here,” Shinichi said. “And you’re not interested in finding yours too, are you?”

Kuroba continued staring at the row of couches, as if he was really intending to buy one for their so-called future home... Kuroba shook his head.

“Great, so let’s just pretend we’re working together to find our soulmates so your friend and mine can get off our backs.” At the thought of Ran, Shinichi checked the street outside the store through the transparent windows; the coast was still clear. 

“That could work,” Kuroba replied.

Shinichi smiled, pleased to see his plan unfolding so perfectly. “Ok. What’s your email?”

“Huh?”

“Your email.” Shinichi pulled out his phone from his pocket. “If we want to make this story work we should have each other’s contacts.”

Kuroba raised an eyebrow. “Shouldn’t it be phone numbers?” 

Shinichi hesitated. 

“I’m joking.” Kuroba chuckled. “Yeah, sure. An email is good enough for the pretence.” He took out his phone in exchange for Shinichi’s. “The Detective of the East sure has everything planned.”

“Only for some occasions.” Tapping his email address onto Kuroba’s phone, Shinichi returned it back to him. “It’s usually the criminal that does the planning and I figure them out.” 

Something unreadable flickered passed Kuroba’s eyes, but his smile remained etched on his lips. “That makes sense.”

Of course that made sense. And it would also make sense if Shinichi stopped the conversation and left this place for good, too. But here he was, still rooted to the ground with a bunch of furniture surrounding them, and he looked at Kuroba and wondered what was the thing that made him stay. 

Curiosity. Yes. That must be the only reason. Because Shinichi would never leave until he figured everything out.

“Is there a reason why you’re not as keen to find your soulmates like every other human?” 

Kuroba tilted his head, his steady blue eyes staring into Shinichi’s. “I don’t mind answering, but only if you tell me your reason too.” 

They continued staring until one beat turned into two... but on the third, the bell by the door chimed, revealing a couple as they walked into the store hand in hand and passed Shinichi and Kuroba, disturbing whatever moment they had between them. 

“I see,” Shinichi said.

“Are you not telling?” 

“No.” Pocketing his phone, Shinichi took a step closer to the entrance. “Thanks for your cooperation earlier. I wish you luck in finding your soulmate, if that happens to be something you want in the end.” 

When Shinichi turned, Kuroba exclaimed, “Wait.” 

Shinichi glanced back.

Kuroba looked almost constipated. He licked his lips, parting them to only close again, and his gaze turned to the couches again. “Actually…”

“Ah,” Shinichi said as he returned to Kuroba’s front. “Sorry, I forgot.”

“W-What?”

“You want my autograph, right?”

Kuroba blinked, and blinked again. “Yeah. That’s exactly it.”

Shinichi patted his pocket for a marker, which he always brought along knowing it would come in handy for any sort of situation, be it during an investigation or meeting a fan. “What do you want me to sign on?” 

Kuroba hastily rummaged through his pockets, and much to Shinichi’s surprise, he pulled out a blue tuck box that held playing cards; Shinichi didn’t expect a thick item like that to fit so perfectly and unobtrusively inside Kuroba’s jeans the entire time. 

“Do you always carry a deck of cards with you?” Shinichi asked before he uncapped his marker with his mouth.

Kuroba rubbed the back of his neck. “Not always.” 

Shinichi signed, his tip hovering over the box for a moment before he decisively added _Thanks Kuroba_ at the bottom of his signature. He returned the box, and Kuroba took it as if it was something fragile. Like a baby.

“If there’s nothing else”—Shinichi capped his marker, waiting for an answer—“I’ll be going.” 

This time when he finally left for the entrance, Kuroba didn’t stop him. 

* * *

“You’ve been staring at it for the past one hour, Kaito-botchama.”

With his chin resting on the bar counter with two arms spread out, Kaito sighed, for the thousandth time, so much so he didn’t have any breath left to drink the mocktail Jii had made, leaving it melted, diluted and forgotten beside him. Kaito glanced up at Jii. 

“Why does my life suck, Jii-chan?” 

Jii continued to wipe the wine glass. “I’m afraid I don’t have an answer to that.” 

“So you agree my life sucks?”

Jii smiled, albeit a little sad. 

Kaito sighed again and stared at his favourite box of cards standing on the counter, the side with Shinichi’s signature facing him. 

When Kaito first arrived at the cafe to find Aoko and Mouri Ran there, he didn’t think anything was out of the ordinary. Oh, Aoko met a new girlfriend? Cool— Hey, wait a sec. Mouri _Ran_? Wasn’t she also… And before Aoko finished explaining about some app she had helped him to register, Kudo Shinichi arrived.

Everything was history.

_And everything was a lie._

_“Obviously.”_

Kaito closed his eyes.

Since Hakuba first told them Shinichi had missed the opportunity of his timer’s powers, Kaito had wondered if the detective was curious or even attempted to look into the existence of his soulmate at all. But Kaito didn’t think, for once, that Shinichi would absolutely _not_ care; the moments when Ran introduced Kaito, and when Shinichi knew his soulmate could be the almighty Kaitou KID, both of Shinichi’s reactions were the same:

_I don’t give a damn._

Actually shouldn’t this be great news? Whether Shinichi cared or not didn’t matter, because it wouldn’t change how Kaito was Kaitou KID, and that he had an organisation and a myth to destroy. That was why he let Aoko go, and similarly, Kaito should let Shinichi be on his way to lead his own life free without having to fulfil his role as one’s soulmates, which seemed to be what Shinichi wanted too. 

With no compromises or consequences coming from Kaito’s decisions, everyone had their own happy endings. 

And that was how it should be.

(But despite it all, it would be a lie if Kaito didn’t think his life still sucked, and that he wasn’t a little bruised by Shinichi’s nonchalance—bruised to not just his ego but his heart.)

* * *

“Is Kaitou KID really—?!”

Ran slapped a hand over Sonoko’s mouth before her shout spread far and wide throughout the classroom (but everyone was busy packing up and getting ready for their club activities so nobody really paid any serious attention to the three of them). 

“Not so loud!” Ran chided and peeled her hand away.

“I can’t help it.” Sonoko laughed sheepishly. “It’s just— Unbelievable, you know?”

Standing in front of his table, Shinichi continued packing his homework into his bag nonchalantly. He knew fully well what Sonoko was referring to, even if she didn’t finish her sentence in the first place. “There’s no evidence to that.” 

Sonoko rolled her eyes before striking a pose with a finger pointing at Shinichi’s face. “ _‘There is only one truth!’_ Isn’t that what you always like to say?” 

“Yes, but the truth is not _it_.” Shinichi pushed Sonoko’s hand away, annoyed. He glanced at Ran. “You ought to stop telling her about my stuff.”

“Sorry.” Ran looked guilty, which ironically made Shinichi just as guilty for saying what he’d said. “I accidentally blurted it out when Sonoko was talking about the thief.”

“Why do you want to hide that from me anyway?” Sonoko huffed, her hands on her hips. “I deserve to know at least.”

“On what basis?” Shinichi drawled.

“On the basis that Kaitou KID might be my boyfriend one day!”

Shinichi nearly choked on his laughter. “So you want to date some 40-year old geezer?”

Ran and Sonoko stared at him, both looking equally dumbfounded, but they knew better than to question whether what he said was true; because he’d never tell facts without knowing it was. 

Instead, Ran asked, “How did you figure out his age?”

“Kaitou KID first appeared around 18 years ago.” Shinichi flexed his fingers. “So if you do some rough math, you’ll know he’s probably at least 40 by now.” And possibly married, too. Given how KID disappeared for a period of time before resurfacing again, there was a possibility the thief had settled down and formed a family, only to return to his criminal lifestyle when his children were grown up or something. He knew of serial killers who were like that, and he wouldn’t doubt a thief to do the same.

Sonoko whistled. “You sure did a lot of research about Kaitou KID, huh?”

“It took me less than 30 seconds,” Shinichi said, whilst ignoring Ran who was looking at him just as cheekily as Sonoko was. 

“Anyway no matter if Kaitou KID is 40 or not, he’s still so charming!” Sonoko clasped her hands together and sighed dreamily at the ceiling. “It’s still my dream to meet him one day.”

Ran laughed. “But what then, when you meet your soulmate in about…” Ran peered at Sonoko’s wrist. “...four months’ time?”

Sonoko shrugged and continued to stare at the ceiling. “I’ll see how it goes.” 

Shinichi rolled his eyes. Stuffing the last of his homework sheet into his bag, he zipped it and tossed it over his shoulder. “I’m going off. You have Karate training right, Ran?”

“Yeap.” Ran eyed him curiously. “Are you going home?”

Snapping out of her trance, Sonoko scoffed. “He is, unless a murder suddenly appeared out of nowhere.”

“That’s true,” Ran agreed. 

Not bothering to defend himself or correct them, Shinichi waved a silent goodbye and headed out of the classroom. He checked his watch. Good, he should still be able to reach in time.

Even though Shinichi lived in Tokyo nearly his entire life, it wasn’t often he travelled to other parts of the cities or town to explore on his own; there wasn’t a reason to do so unless it had to do with investigating a case. Like now. 

(Ran definitely wouldn’t call it a case, but Shinichi didn’t know what else to call it either.)

Exiting out of the train station, Shinichi stepped into the town of Ekoda. The types of shops and bustling streets looked similar to the ones in Beika, but almost every high-school student Shinichi saw walking around wore black, making him—in his blue suit and pants—instantly foreign. He checked his watch again and hurried down the streets to where Inspector Megure had texted him. 

Ah, there it was, just like what the Inspector had promised; that Shinichi would instantly spot the attractive, British cafe smacked in between two typical-looking ones. 

Shinichi entered the cafe and was welcomed by a waitress, but Shinichi politely rejected her offer to guide him to a seat. He strolled further inside and passed a couple of antique chairs and round wooden tables, trying to find the one he was here for in the midst of the late afternoon crowd. Luckily it was pretty easy when he was the only blonde in this place. 

Sitting beside an old-looking oil painting on the cream-coloured wall, Hakuba Saguru sipped onto his tea. He was wearing the same black school uniform Shinichi saw other students wore earlier, which made Shinichi wonder if Kuroba and Nakamori were the same school as him (Shinichi remembered Nakamori mentioning his name during their conversation, but what were the chances that they were referring to the same Hakuba? And at the thought of Nakamori, Shinichi wondered if she was related to the Inspector who was also in-charge of Kaitou KID’s Task Force. (Yes, apparently one could do wonders on the internet with just 30 seconds of research.)).

“Hakuba Saguru?” Shinichi said once he stood next to his table. 

The blonde man glanced up from his porcelain cup with widened eyes. “Kudo Shinichi?” 

So Inspector Megure was right again, that the son of the Superintendent General was a blonde, and that he always spent his time every Monday after school alone in this cafe before proceeding to find his father at the Police Headquarters. But what Inspector Megure didn’t tell him when Shinichi asked about Hakuba was that the latter knew about Shinichi too. 

“I’m surprised you know who I am,” Shinichi admitted aloud. 

Hakuba raised his cup. “I’m surprised you know me too.” 

Shinichi glanced at the empty chair opposite Hakuba. “Are you expecting anyone?” he asked anyway, just in case.

“No.” Hakuba placed his cup down and motioned Shinichi to sit. “Do you want anything to drink?”

“It’s fine.” Shinichi set his bag beside the chair. “I only need ten minutes of your time to talk.”

“Talk?” 

Steepling his fingers over his knees, Shinichi said, “About Kaitou KID.”

* * *

Kaito had a bad feeling today.

No, it had nothing to do with Akako breathing down his neck and reading him his tarot card this morning. No, it wasn’t related to Aoko’s earlier curses as she hoped KID would fall in a river during his flight and get a cold and swimmer’s itch (oddly specific but okay). But maybe… maybe it got to do with the way Hakuba had been smiling so creepily at him since two days ago, and what made the detective even more strange was his lack of jabs and sarcastic inputs about Kaitou KID, as if he was withholding all of them back for the _BIG_ day. 

And Kaito had a feeling today was the _BIG_ day. 

Kaito wrinkled his nose and sniffed; he couldn’t rub it in fear of tainting his disguise. The AC was on full blast in the security room, but the other two officers, who were sitting on their chairs beside him, were too focused on the dozen security feeds on the wall in front of them to mind about the cold.

He was tempted to roll his chair to increase the temperature even just for a minute when the radio on the table crackled to life. 

_“Any sign of KID anywhere?”_ Inspector Nakamori’s voice came through as static.

The senior of the three picked up the walkie-talkie to respond. “No sir!”

_“Keep your eyes open! He’s going to appear in another five minutes!”_

“Yes sir!”

 _He’s still right here._ Kaito grinned, but his smile didn’t stay long. He kept his eyes on the screen like what Inspector Nakamori demanded, but it was for his own purposes. He had long memorised the blueprints of the museum and the number of people being stationed on each floor, but the reason why he chose to disguise himself as a security guard rather than a patrolling officer was because he wanted to see, till the very last second, what Hakuba could be up to.

But for the past hour since Kaito sat on this chair and watched the security feed, Hakuba was nowhere to be found.

Yet the bad feeling still lingered.

Was he overreacting? His gut-senses malfunctioning? But whatever it was, he still needed to be prepared.

Three minutes later when he still found nothing, Kaito decided it was high time to start his plan. As he slipped out of the door after requesting for a toilet break, he threw a sleeping smoke-bomb into the security room and locked the door from the inside. Then, slipping into the generator room right next door, Kaito cut the lines, causing an instant blackout and chants of shouts echoing all around the halls from different levels. 

Changed out and into KID’s costume, he sprinted to the hall where the jewel rested.

Cutting the lines usually took a lot more time for Inspector Nakamori and the Task Force to switch the lights back on, which can dampen the fun and thrill for Kaito. But today… today would be an exception. Even though things were going according to plan, Kaito hadn’t put much of his guard down. 

If his bad feeling didn’t have to do with Hakuba, maybe it was Snake that was sending these magnetic waves of chills down the back of Kaito’s spine.

Within minutes after stealing his promised prize—Midnight Castle, a big red jewel found recently in a sunken ship around the Atlantic Ocean—he was on his way up the emergency stairs and to the highest floor. Kaito could smell the strong earthy scent in the air even moments before he burst through the door and stepped onto the quiet roof, and the next thing that hit him was the wind; his cape flapped so madly like they were about to be blown off his shoulder. 

Aoko’s curses might actually happen tonight.

Kaito stalked towards the roof’s ledge and watched the flashes of red and blue lights below. The crowd that was previously cheering at the front of the museum had started to disperse, perhaps knowing better to stay when they sensed a big storm coming (he hoped if Aoko was in the crowd somewhere with the anti-sign, she was smart to leave as well). 

Stepping onto the ledge, he raised the Midnight Castle in the sky. Hm, no good. He might need to check it tomorrow night. The sky was too cloudy for—

“Kaitou KID.” 

_Holy shit._

As calm as he could, Kaito lowered his arms and turned to his side, watching the very person he didn’t expect to see tonight—and the very person he never thought would be the cause of his bad feeling—walking towards him with two hands in his pockets. 

Kaito swallowed. He needed to say this once and say it right without stammering like an idiot, “Kudo Shinichi.” 

Shinichi stopped just a couple of metres away and tilted his head. “You know me too?” 

_Too?_ “How can I not when your reputation rivals mine?”

“I beg to differ.” Shinichi took a step closer to the ledge and peered down. “I don’t think my fans are any close to the amount you have.”

Kaito followed Shinichi’s gaze. That was true; Kaitou KID had more than a dozen of forums and Fanclubs dedicated to him. But too bad, that one fan letter that was sent to Shinichi was also written by the only anti-fan KID had, and if he had to choose, he would rather have Shinichi’s position than this. Kaito shrugged away the thought.

“What brings you here, detective?” Kaito played with the jewel in his hand. “Haven’t had enough fun on the helicopter and now you’re planning to steal my stage?” 

Shinichi watched Kaito for a considerable moment. “So you know it’s me on that helicopter,” he said.

“Not only that, I also know you attempted to murder me.”

Shinichi scoffed. “If I was intending to murder you, you wouldn’t be here.”

Kaito bit back a smile. “Back to the main question: What are you doing here?”

Shinichi put out his hand, exposing the bright, red zero under the night sky. It took nearly all the willpower in Kaito to not flinch at the sight, and even more energy in him to push away the bunch of memories he didn’t feel like remembering right now. 

“Return the jewel, KID,” Shinichi said.

“As nice as that sounds, I cannot.” Kaito tapped a finger on his chin, pretending to think. “Maybe tomorrow?”

Shinichi nodded and put down his arm. “Ok.” 

Luckily, standing on the ledge gave Kaito the height advantage to hide most of his face beneath the shadows of his hat, as well as the look of surprise that had slipped through the cracks of his poker face too. 

“Really?” Kaito said, managing to maintain his honeyed, charismatic voice. “The famous detective has come all the way here for this?” 

“To be honest I have no interest in the jewel you’ve stolen,” Shinichi flipped the same hand he had used to ask Kaito for the jewel and tapped a finger on the wrist. His damn timer again. “I’m here for another matter.”

Kuroba Kaito knew what Shinichi was here for, but Kaitou KID wouldn’t have known. Kaito angled his body so he was facing Shinichi fully and slipped the jewel up his sleeve. “What is it?” 

“Show me your timer.”

“What timer?” Kaito played ignorant.

“A phantom or not, I believe you know what I’m talking about.” 

Kaito pursed his lips. He didn’t get it. Why would Shinichi want to see his timer for? Didn’t he say he didn’t care about meeting his soulmate or finding out who the person was? What happened that made Shinichi change his mind in a span of a week? (The very same span of the week when Kaito already decided he just wasn’t meant to love in this life.)

Hands still stuck deep, deep inside his pockets, Kaito smiled. “Of all things, like my face, why are you interested in my timer?” 

Shinichi shrugged. “Just because.”

“I’m afraid that’s not a very convincing reason, detective. The timer is as intimate as one’s fingerprint, so no, I’m not going to show it to you.”

“Fine.” Shinichi paused, his eyes briefly calculative. “I can see it once I put the cuff around your wrist.”

Kaito laughed, and he had to hold the brim of his hat down in case it fell off his head. “Is that a challenge?” 

“Yes.” Shinichi crossed his arm, which made it all the more entertaining for Kaito to see. He was unknowingly starting to enjoy this too much for himself, to the point even Mother Nature had to step up and remind him to stop; the wind had grown so strong it almost pushed Kaito off the roof if he hadn’t had his muscles anchored his legs on the ledge. 

Grabbing on one side of his cape to tame it against the wind, Kaito pressed the other hand theatrically over his chest. It was time to end this.

“I look forward to that challenge then, _detective_ ,” Kaito said and took a step back, one feet hovering over the air. “For now I shall bid you goodnight.” He then leaned back, releasing the grip of his cape as he commanded it to become his wings, sending him gliding over the land of city lights.

It took him all his willpower and nerve cells to not cast a glance back.

.

. 

Kaito couldn’t wait till lunch time, much less the end of school, to confront Hakuba about the many things he had thought about while tossing left and right on his bed last night. So he woke up earlier (not that he slept to begin with) and headed to school; if Hakuba wasn’t in London for some cases, he would usually be in school pretty early and be reading some foreign books on his desk to show how educated he was. 

But just his luck (or was it his destiny?), Kaito couldn’t find Hakuba by his desk, though his belongings told him at least he was in school. 

“Do you know where Hakuba is?” Kaito asked as he approached another group of early students chatting around their seats. 

Everyone stared at Kaito like he was an alien, not that he could blame them for it. Firstly being he was so early today, and secondly this was probably the first time he asked for Hakuba, and even wanted to find him for that matter. 

“I think he’d gone to the toilet,” the class rep said. 

“Thanks.” 

After dropping his bag on his table, Kaito sprinted out of the classroom. 

Lo and behold Kaito found Hakuba walking out of the restroom at the end of the corridor, and it brought some satisfaction to him when Hakuba couldn’t hide the surprise in his face the moment their eyes met. Kaito continued running to him anyway, before pulling the detective’s sleeves and back into the restroom; the corridor was going to get crowded soon and Kaito needed privacy. 

“Kuroba?” Hakuba had regained his composure enough to wear that creepy smile on his face, but his voice wasn’t able to hide the wariness in him. “Is there something wrong?”

Kaito slapped open the doors of all the cubicles. Once knowing they were all empty, he spun to Hakuba. “I need to talk to you.”

“Is the world ending?” 

“At this rate I hope it is.” Kaito narrowed his eyes. “Did you meet Kudo Shinichi?”

Hakuba’s smirk was more than enough of an answer. “What makes you think that?”

“Why did you meet him?” Kaito spat. 

“For the record, it’s Kudo-kun that looked for me.” 

“...What?”

Hakuba crossed his arms and leaned against the basin. “He found me a couple of days ago—Monday at 4:16pm, to be precise.” 

“Why did he look for you?”

“He wanted to talk about Kaitou KID.”

Kaito rubbed an eye, keeping his legs still while his head was reeling from everything. “Ok. And what about KID?” 

“Nothing much.” 

“There’s got to be something.” 

Hakuba laughed, in a way that tempted Kaito to wipe it off his face with a slap. “Why do you care? It’s not like we were talking about _you_ , or were we?” 

“Enough crap. Just tell me.”

“No.”

Kaito scowled. “Why?”

“Because it’s interesting to see you want something from me for once.”

“I knew it.” Kaito flung his hands up in the air. “You’re a psycho.”

Hakuba laughed again. But two seconds before Kaito wanted to throw confetti over his hair and leave the damn restroom, Hakuba answered, “Just as he promised, the entire conversation only lasted for ten minutes. He wanted to know about my experiences at Kaitou KID’s heists and what I think about the thief.”

“...That’s it?”

“Do you want to know my answers?”

“Not interested,” Kaito drawled. “Did he say anything else?”

“No. But before he left he did ask if I’m attending the next KID’s heist, which was last night’s.” Hakuba’s creepy smile was back. “I did intend to, but I figured maybe he’s interested so I told him I’m not and he could go. Too many cooks can spoil the broth.”

Kaito was right, then; the past few days of Hakuba’s creepy smiles were attributed to the bad feeling yesterday—not that meeting Shinichi was bad but… Kaito tilted his wrist, only enough for him to see and be pathetically reminded of the life he’d decided to live.

But Kaito didn’t do it inconspicuously enough as Hakuba managed to follow his gaze. “Anyway, I also noticed how Kudo-kun kept touching his wrist during the entire conversation.” Hakuba dragged his thumb across his own ticking numbers. “Coincidence or a habit? I don’t know. But it’s an observation of mine so it’s up to you to interpret it.”

Kaito glanced away. “There’s nothing to interpret.” 

“Sure. Just thought you’d want to know.” Hakuba pushed himself off the basin and looked at his fancy watch. “It’s about time before the bell rings. Any more questions?”

“No.” Kaito turned, taking one step towards the door when Hakuba cut his path.

“Then it’s my turn.”

“Uh, we’re not taking turns to—” 

“Is Kudo Shinichi your soulmate?”

All the air in Kaito was sucked out along with the soul in his body; his throat turned dry and something in his chest squeezed. The thought of Shinichi being his soulmate didn’t bother Kaito much anymore, but what bothered him was how he couldn’t _admit_ Shinichi was his soulmate, which bothered him even more because he was bothered about something as stupid as this at all. 

His head was reeling again.

“No,” Kaito muttered. 

Hakuba raised his eyebrows. “Interestingly, that’s the exact intonation you use whenever I say you’re Kaitou KID.” 

“Stop analysing me like a psycho.” 

“Have you considered it’s my superb detective senses?”

“Both are the same thing.” Kaito stepped around Hakuba and towards the door.

“Don’t be afraid to come to me if you need any advice,” Hakuba said with an incompatible grin on his face.

Kaito should’ve known not to expect anything else out of this confrontation besides the obvious truth, but that didn’t mean his heart was fully prepared for it. The least he deserved, he thought, was to have at least the last word in: “I don’t need any advice from you.” 

With that, Kaito left the restroom.

* * *

Thankfully by the third time they met, Inspector Nakamori had warmed up enough towards Shinichi to listen to his suggestions without scowling at his existence (credits to Inspector Megure and Hakuba Saguru that helped to ease the tension). And since then, Shinichi was also supplied with the Bluetooth piece and the master card access without a question. 

Shinichi didn’t really need to hear the Inspector shouting in his ear every twenty seconds, but he accepted them nonetheless. 

Now… was this the sixth or the seventh time he came? Shinichi didn’t mind not knowing, but he minded when Sonoko loved to exaggerate the number and accuse him of being slow to find out if KID was his soulmate, just like what she did this morning. 

_“Hah! This is your twentieth visit and yet you haven’t caught him? As expected of KID-sama!”_

Ridiculous. 

On the other hand Ran had been supportive, in a way Shinichi wasn’t sure if it was a good or bad thing. She was eager with his progress, and sometimes texted him in the middle of the heists to ask if he chatted with KID. Yes. _Chatted_. As if Ran thought he and KID were friends.

And no, Shinichi didn’t _chat_ with KID, per se. They only exchanged brief banters until Inspector Nakamori caught up to Shinichi on the roof, or whenever KID decided it was time to leave. And before he did, he would give that stupid wink and two finger salute before throwing a flash or smoke bomb onto the ground. (Shinichi couldn’t choose which one he hated more, but he considered asking Professor Agasa to make something for him to protect himself against those bombs.)

Regardless, the prize for this (sixth or seventh but definitely not twentieth) heist was a blue sapphire necklace. It was rumoured to have a long history with some famous pirate’s daughter, though that didn’t matter anymore since the ship it was found from sunk more than a decade ago… All these information were found inside the brochure distributed in the afternoon for everyone to read. Inspector Nakamori and pretty much everyone else had long chucked it away and under one of their many computers in the meeting room, but taking ten minutes away for a break, Shinichi took one and spent his time reading through it in the middle of an empty corridor, one that was far away from the main hall and sapphire for the Inspector to ignore and focus his manpower elsewhere.

As far as Shinichi could tell from the brochure and his past research, the Angel’s Sky—the name of the sapphire—had nothing in common with the other gems KID had stolen. Some were national treasures, others were private collections, and a couple were lost treasures, like this one. The only similarities was they were all Big Jewels.

Shinichi closed the brochure and stared at the cover, thinking. Originally he thought Kaitou KID was a righteous thief trying to scoop out the fakes in the gem business, but the more Shinichi saw KID in action, the more he thought he was wrong. Or not entirely. The Clock Tower heist certainly proved Shinichi’s theory right, but the rest of it felt as if KID was trying to _find_ something rather than—

“Do you like it?” 

Shinichi glanced up, staring at Yasuo Kenji, the owner’s young male assistant, standing and leaning against the other side of the corridor wall. (Had Shinichi been so distracted to not notice someone walking from one end of the corridor to here?)

Yasuo Kenji had an above-average facial features with slightly tousled black hair, which Shinichi wasn’t sure was natural or if he got it from all the running around the mansion doing his tasks. Shinichi didn’t ask, but he also guessed Yasuo might be in his early twenties at most. He was smiling—and still smiling—when he spoke, and for politeness, Shinichi smiled back, though he had no idea what Yasuo was talking about. 

“I designed and printed the brochure this morning,” Yasuo added, as if reading Shinichi’s thoughts. 

“Oh.” Shinichi flipped the brochure as a gesture. He wasn’t one with a flair for design but he could at least comment on something else. “Yeah, it’s pretty informative.” 

“Really?” In the magic of one word the polite tone had dramatically turned to something a little more lower and sarcastic. “It took me about ten minutes of copy and pasting from the internet.”

Shinichi blinked, brows slowly merging. “You—”

Even if the signature, charming voice wasn’t enough of an evidence, his grin already made him guilty—the grin, which looked so unfiltered and bright even when Kaitou KID was in a disguise. 

“You,” Shinichi said with more disdain this time. 

“Glad you liked something I did, detective.” 

Like the first thought when Shinichi saw KID on the roof, everything about the thief—his usage of words, posture and all—continued to debunk what Shinichi thought a 40-years old geezer would be. And if KID wasn’t 40-years old but younger, the chance that his timer was zero would be lower, and yet if it was, it meant KID could be his...

“Time is ticking so slow today, don’t you think?” KID glanced at both sides of the empty corridor before looking back at Shinichi. “It’s like a waiting game for now.”

Shinichi folded and tucked the brochure into his pocket. Indeed, there was still half an hour before the heist officially started. “You must be really bored.” 

“A little, to be honest,” KID said, “which is why I’m glad you’re here to save me from that.” 

Shinichi frowned. “Have you forgotten the challenge?”

“Of course not.” KID pressed a hand over his chest, conveniently showing his bandage that Yasuo Kenji—or the already impersonating Kaitou KID—said he got from a sprain when he introduced himself this morning. The bandage was wrapped up to his palm, covering the wrist where the timer was. “This challenge is one of the few things I look forward to in my life.” 

“Really?” Shinichi drawled. “In your life?”

KID’s eyes twinkled in a way that looked inappropriate on Yasuo’s kind and humble face. “Contrary to popular beliefs, I do have a life outside of being a phantom, detective.”

Shinichi knew that well enough, and he very much knew Kaitou KID was also a human under all these disguises and uniform, who walked on this planet with a timer that counted down to when fate desired. So no matter how the media portrayed him, he was like everyone else, with a soulmate out there for him.

But that wasn’t what Shinichi was sarcastic about; it was how Shinichi and the challenge even mattered to KID’s so-called life. Because according to Hakuba’s experiences, and the infrequent text messages they exchanged when the blonde asked about the events of the heist, Kaitou KID had a distaste for detectives. Then again as the master of disguise, this could be one of the many personalities he curated for a purpose, though it was strange when Shinichi was here with the hidden motive in the first place.

“You have a life.” Shinichi paused. “But you spent half of that life stealing things. And returning them.”

KID gave a complicated half-shrug half-nod sort of movement. “I don’t need what I don’t want.”

The information wasn’t value-adding but it did give Shinichi another perspective. “Are you implying you’re searching for something?” 

“Did I?” KID tilted his head. “It could be for the thrill, you know.”

“If it is you wouldn’t only be targeting gems now.”

“You can say it’s my MO.”

“But before gems you’ve stolen other things.” Shinichi began listing his fingers. “Paintings, crowns, artefacts… What changed?”

“You can also say I’ve grown interest in smaller and shinier things.”

Shinichi scoffed. “You’re being defensive, KID.”

“Really?” KID tapped a finger on his chin. “I thought we’re chatting, detective.”

 _Chatting?_ One of Shinichi’s eyes twitched, and he crossed his arms, now his turn to be defensive. “If it’s really for the thrill,” Shinichi continued, “what made you stop, and come back eight years later?" 

A light coincidentally flickered at one end of the corridor as KID stared, unsmiling, unmoving, and Shinichi looked back, doing the same. There was something integrating about the quietness and the way KID stood, and even if it didn’t fit Yasuo Kenji’s cheery demeanour, a part of KID’s soul was embedded in those eyes, and Shinichi saw more things in them than he ever had. 

KID said nothing. 

“Everyone thought you retired for good then,” Shinichi prompted, like moving his bait gently in the water; careful to not sound invested too. Something about the eight years gap was significant enough to make KID clam up from spurting those witty remarks, and Shinichi wondered how far he was able to—

A static in Shinichi’s ear. _“Team A, B, C, reports from your post right now!”_

Shinichi swallowed a wince, inwardly face-palming himself for his _fate_ with worst timings. He had switched his Bluetooth on in case anyone needed him since he was away—here—and he'd forgotten to switch it off when KID came. But Shinichi kept his eyes on the thief, careful to not let slip of the command in work and lose the momentum of their chat— of _the interrogation._ Yes. To not lose the momentum of the interrogation.

 _“Team A clear,”_ a voice came in reply.

_“B clear!”_

_“Team C clear!”_

_“Ok. There’s ten minutes left,”_ Inspector Nakamori ruffed. _“Be on your toes!”_

After the three teams chanted their acknowledgement back, KID chuckled, the past brooding moments shattered and swept away like it never happened. 

“You’ll get used to it; Inspector Nakamori can be loud but his voice will grow on you.” KID then hummed, checking Yasuo Kenji’s watch. “Oh? There’s really ten minutes left. Amazingly, time does pass really fast when I’m with you, detective.” 

Shinichi gaped, pressing his Bluetooth piece into his ear. He knew KID had pretty decent magic tricks and stamina, but he didn’t expect him to have god-sent hearing skills. 

“How did you…” Shinichi trailed off, realizing there was nothing he could say that wouldn’t sound as stupid like _how did you, an internationally-wanted thief, so easily steal our Bluetooth earpiece or hack into our radio signals?_ Wow! _As expected of KID-sama!_

Pushing Sonoko’s voice out of his head, Shinichi took one step forward while KID side-stepped along the wall, keeping their distance as he raised both of his hands.

KID looked amused. “Are we really going to do this now?”

“What do you think?”

KID took another step back. “The challenge doesn’t start until the heist does.”

“There’s no such rule.”

“I just implemented it,” KID said, raising his hand and twisted it to a familiar form. 

Shinichi extended his arm. Red zero in sight. “Don’t—”

KID flicked a bomb out of his wrist and slammed it onto the ground. Pink smoke filled the space between them in seconds, but covering his mouth, Shinichi didn’t hesitate to run through the unknown, following the faint sound of fast footsteps down the corridor.

Six minutes before the promised time, Shinichi’s chase began.

* * *

(In the make-believe world where Kudo Shinichi didn’t need to believe in soulmates and fate, there existed a Kuroba Kaito who believed in Pandora and the immortality myth a little bit more, because in that same make-believe world, Kaitou KID met a boy named Edogawa Conan, and eventually came to realize the bizarre existence of a pill that could shrink an individual by ten years. And so, Edogawa Conan and Kaitou KID’s rivalry continued to the end until they reunited with their true identities. 

However in this universe where Edogawa Conan didn’t exist, Kudo Shinichi took on the title as the KID-Killer in the process of chasing the thief. But like what Inspector Megure and Ran liked to tease, there weren't only crimes as basic as thievery when Shinichi was around; they encountered other things outside of the scope of a heist, like murders, landing an aeroplane and even a couple of terrorist attacks… and throughout it all they had put aside their differences and overcome them together.

But despite this, Shinichi didn’t treat Kaitou KID as his Dr. Watson and Kaito didn’t think Shinichi was his accomplice. They were not soulmates either, regardless in any literary form. They were temporary partners—temporarily trusting each other, relying on each other and carrying each other’s back, sometimes literally; they would do what was needed for the greater good before returning to their original stance, where they fell back into exchanging banters and petty remarks about the other person owing a debt. And so, Kudo Shinichi and Kaitou KID’s rivalry and challenge would continue to the end… until one of them showed their timer or confessed the truth of their feelings.

Fate could only laugh.

Because if things were as simple as it seemed, what was the point of this story anyway?)

* * *

Kaito was relieved Shinichi wasn’t present today.

It wasn’t like Kaito didn’t want him to be or expected him to be. Shinichi’s visit frequency was on par with Hakuba; he could come for two consecutive heists, disappear for the next three and come back for the next one. Not that Kaito was keeping track, or maybe he was, but that wasn’t the point. He was just glad Shinichi didn’t come tonight, and neither did Hakuba, because the latter would never let Kaito’s ears be in peace the next school morning if he saw Snake, alongside with his dumbass men in fedora hats.

And knowing Shinichi, he would never let Kaitou KID go if he knew about the organization's existence too.

It was good that Inspector Nakamori suspected nothing; being too busy chasing after the dummy that had flown away (this was the least he could do to keep Aoko’s father safe). But even if Kaito wanted to face them alone, there was still Jii who knew everything, watching in fear as Kaito confronted and taunted them with an imitation of his dad’s voice. 

And then Snake shot two fires as Kaito jumped off the roof.

Like what his dad said about _practice makes perfect_ , Snake’s aim was indeed getting better with every attempt of murder. 

“Maybe I should find a way to include a bullet vest into your suit,” Jii said.

Kaito laughed, but regretted instantly as he winced at the pain that shot across the right side of his body. Sitting on the bar stool beside Kaito, Jii shook his head, continuing to dab the cotton ball over Kaito’s arm wound—a graze from one of Snake’s bullets (though _too bad_ the jewel Kaito stole wasn’t Pandora).

Usually after every heist, Kaitou KID would drop his gears off at Jii’s bar, change out, and head home as Kuroba Kaito with a perfect alibi over his head; he was too tired to hold a post-heist meeting straight after and only have it at a later date at Jii’s bar, in the same guise of a regular customer again. But tonight was different, and had unfortunately been different for quite some time; so keeping his bar business closed, Jii forced Kaito to stay to tend his wounds.

“But it’s gonna be so stuffy,” Kaito said in the most pacifying tone he could muster. “It’d restrict my movements too.” 

Jii looked at him disapprovingly. And to further express that disapproval, Jii pushed Kaito’s blue sleeve up more roughly than necessary to patch the upper part of Kaito’s wound. “It’s for your own safety.” 

“It's okay if I have this.” Kaito stretched, pulling KID’s white suit across the bar counter towards him. With his injured arm under Jii’s grip, Kaito wiggled his other hand inside the inner pocket before pulling out the one and only item he had inside there. 

Jii frowned in concern at the _item_. “You do know a box of cards isn’t enough to stop a bullet, right?” 

“That’s true, but this isn’t a refill or whatsoever,” Kaito said, flipping it over to show Jii the signed cover. “It’s my lucky charm.” 

“Doesn’t seem to work today though?” Jii’s strength wasn't sarcasm, not quite like Akako or Hakuba, but he pulled it off quite magnificently here.

“That’s unfair, Jii-chan.” Kaito placed the box upright on the counter with Shinichi’s signature and his cursive _Thanks Kuroba_ facing him. “You can’t discount the good days just because there are some bad ones.”

Jii shook his head, which was his usual form of reply as to say Kaito’s words were silly and there really was nothing more to say; Jii might think Kaito was joking, and Kaito did make it sound like it was, but he was actually as real and serious as the night he declared he would destroy Snake and his organisation; because when he randomly decided to bring the cards with him for the first time, Shinichi came to his heist for the second time (if that wasn’t luck than what is?). And despite the additional weight, its presence—just a pat over his heart—was enough to briefly lift the boulders off his shoulder and distract him from plenty of sucky things, like his doubts on Pandora’s existence and the stupid myth, or the sudden thoughts of his dad being murdered, and then the fire, and the...

Maybe it wasn’t just a lucky charm. It was a miracle.

(Not that Kudo Shinichi didn’t break his heart at all, it was still nicer to think about him than those other things.)

“Should you really be continuing this, Kaito-botchama?”

Kaito blinked, a finger frozen in the air amidst his unconscious tapping over the box. He turned, also realising then that Jii had finished wrapping the bandage around his arm; he was now quietly packing the remaining supplies back into his big medical box, and if Kaito didn’t know better, he would think he’d imagined Jii’s question.

“Thanks.” Kaito patted the bandage and unrolled his blue sleeves down. “And, uh, what do you mean? Continue what?” He wasn’t playing ignorant. There were some guesses, but he didn’t know what Jii was exactly referring to. 

“Kudo Shinichi’s challenge,” Jii said, glancing at Kaito sideways with a pinch between his brows, looking almost the same as the time when Kaito brought up Shinichi’s first visit to Jii:

 _“After the Clock Tower heist you should know what he’s capable of,”_ Jii had said worriedly behind the counter after Kaito finished his recount. _“And his motive to see your timer… you’re only going to get hurt; I’m not only saying about your physical self._

_“He’s a danger to you, Kaito-botchama.”_

Though back in the present, Kaito ironically brought up that same past. “Do you remember the things you said to me about Shinichi?” he asked. 

It seemed Jii might have those words replaying in his head at the same time as Kaito did. Jii nodded, looking earnest and hopeful about where this conversation was going (he’d hinted a couple of times but Kaito always pretended the conversation never happened).

“You were right about one thing, and I know what Shinichi is capable of,” Kaito said, his hand caressing his wrist where the timer hid under the blue sleeve. “But you were wrong about the other thing. Shinichi isn’t a danger to me.” With the same hand, Kaito crawled it up his arm and stopped over the place of his wound. “I’m the one who is a danger to him.”

“Kai—” 

“There is only one logical answer to your question: No, I shouldn’t continue _this_. But if you had asked if I _want_ to continue this, I have a different answer.” Kaito swallowed the lump in his throat, his eyes set upon Shinichi’s signature. “I want to, Jii-chan. I want to continue because this is the closest chance I have to be with… him.” Kaito squeezed his arm. “But I _don’t_ want to continue if it means putting Shinichi at risk. And I don’t think I can ever forgive myself if anything happens to him.

“Even if Shinichi isn’t interested in being the love of my life, he’s still my soulmate, and our fate ended up like this partially because of me.”

The pain on Kaito’s arm dulled to a numbing sensation as silence fell between them, leaving only the sound of Snake’s gunshots ringing inside his head over and over again. Then, the card deck box moved and toppled over, as though invisible hands touched it, except it wasn’t and there was no wind in the bar. 

Kaito sighed. 

Maybe it was his lucky charm, and sometimes it could count as a miracle. But right now, Kaito decided to take it as a sign.

* * *

A couple of weeks ago Ran celebrated her six-month anniversary with Haruto, in other words six months since her timer counted to zero. As what Ran shared with Sonoko and him during lunch break, they went to the sea aquarium that Ran always wanted to go to, and Haruto gifted her a sea-cucumber phone strap when she joked about how she wanted it. 

Ran didn’t say it explicitly, but Shinichi could tell that the celebration was simple and yet everything she wanted.

Aside from making that comment in his head, Shinichi was quiet most of the time, having nothing much to say besides listening to Ran and Sonoko squealing for the most part. But it wasn’t until he went home after school then he realized he’d finished his bento down to the last grain of rice, which was strange when he used to easily lose his appetite at the simple mention of Haruto during lunch break. His changed behaviour continued for a while and Shinichi figured maybe he was already numb or had gotten used to hearing stories of Haruto, until recently when he couldn’t finish his lunch again.

Shinichi had a hard time identifying his problem at first; most of the things in his life were going on as per usual—nothing that would explain his bad habit to resurface. Ran still talked about Haruto, school and soccer trainings were manageable, murder cases never stopped and he still received some fan letters in his mailbox (there was a recent odd one that requested a challenge from the West…). Basically most of the things in Shinichi’s life was normal, until he started suspecting the thing he hadn’t included as part of his life:

Kaitou KID.

Shinichi had lost track of how many heists he’d attended, what’s more when his last minute changes in schedule would complicate the numbers; there were times he had either told Hakuba he would go and ended up bailing out because of one of his _life_ issues, or at times when he finished his soccer practice/murder cases earlier than expected and ended up joining the heist he declined. 

But no matter what the exact number was, one thing clear was for the past recent heists, Shinichi hadn’t had the chance to meet the thief himself like the first few times he did.

Was it really _the_ chance that ruined Shinichi’s opportunity to see KID? Just down on his luck? Or could it be fa—

No, Shinichi refused to use that word. 

He decided to stick to chance; the lack of chance to meet KID before he flew off and disguised as a speck of light in the distance. It wasn’t like Shinichi missed their meetings—no matter how short or pointless their conversations could be. Shinichi just felt… incomplete whenever he left KID’s heist. Like watching a full-length movie to realise his favourite actor didn’t appear. 

Maybe the thief decided to change and take Shinichi’s challenge very seriously, or maybe the thief has lost interest, and was avoiding the hassle to entertain Shinichi’s visits again. _Or_ maybe it was something more sinister, something Shinichi had no control off...

Shinichi glanced at his watch. It was fifteen minutes past the time Kaitou KID promised to steal the _Green Persian—_ a glass-carved cat with an emerald embedded on its chest. It was owned by one of the richest women in Japan and was secured in her castle-like mansion located outside of Tokyo and in the middle of a forest, where parts of the surrounding land were also owned by her. Unlike the buildings in the city, the pointed roofs wouldn’t give KID the right momentum to spread his wings, and all the mansion’s windows were sealed as per Inspector Nakamori’s protocol (even if KID did break those windows, the height was too low for KID to fly far). The only way to escape was via foot.

Shinichi glanced at his watch again. Any second now…

It was faint at first, but as Shinichi concentrated and ignored the sound of flowing water from the creek further inside the forest, he detected running footsteps padding across the soft grass. 

Shinichi leaned against the tree and hid himself in the shadows. 

It was discussed during the earlier briefing that Inspector Nakamori and the rest of the Task Force would take care off the main roads and forest paths because only there could KID escape with a possible car or bike; there was no way KID would take this deserted path—the one Shinichi was currently secretly waiting in—because further inside the forest was nothing but a creek. _But_ what Shinichi didn’t mention, and neither did the owner care to bring up during the meeting, was the existence of a downhill slope opposite the creek, which Shinichi had discovered would lead to another section of the main road—

“You should’ve stood a little more to your right.”

Mind so deep in his plan, it took Shinichi a second before he registered where the voice came from. He tilted his head up, eyes turning marginally wide as he stared at Kaitou KID squatting on the branch high and above him. 

“I could see you hiding from the direction I was coming from,” KID clarified, probably thinking Shinichi’s silence was because he didn’t get what he said the first time, and it wasn't wrong, per se. It just wasn't the biggest reason why Shinichi almost lost his composure.

Shinichi stepped away from the tree and out of the shadows, his eyes fixated on the contrastingly white thief on the branch, but he couldn’t call KID’s advice an irony when he didn’t notice the thief in the first place. 

“Return the jewel,” Shinichi said as he put out his hand, his red zero glowed under the night sky.

Tried and tested, KID remained unfazed like all the other times Shinichi purposely showed his wrist, until he suddenly let out a laugh. “Never fail to forget your opening statement.”

“I have the duty to at least say that before anything else.” 

“Fair point, and my answer is no.”

Shinichi lowered his arm. “Why are you here?”

KID paused, like he had blinked under his hat. “What do you mean?” 

“I noticed you’ve been avoiding me,” Shinichi said, deciding to start with one of his guesses and exploit KID's answer after. “But this time you came up to me when you could’ve run off to the creek.” 

A small and albeit weary smile danced across his lips as KID tilted his head. “Did you miss me?”

Shinichi closed his eyes in a long-suffering manner; he should’ve known better than to phrase his words this way. “No.”

“I didn’t avoid you.” KID stood up on the branch and leapt off. He landed on the ground perfectly. “I’m just a little busy with my life.”

“Busy,” Shinichi deadpanned, “with your life?”

“I told you before I have a life, detective.”

Of course Shinichi remembered that, and he still remembered the question KID hadn’t answered that time, and the things Shinichi heard on his last visit… 

_That_ last visit.

“I remember.”

KID nodded and kicked a stone out of his way. “Do you also remember when I told you your challenge is something I look forward to in my life?”

There was something about KID’s demeanour that hinted his statement wasn’t for the teasing or light banter. Shinichi straightened. “Your point is?”

KID turned, taking a step to stand perfectly under the spot where part of the moonlight shone through the tree canopy; it should have made KID more dramatic like what the news or Fanclubs liked to treat him as, but all Shinichi found in the thief at the moment was a strange sense of loneliness. The slouch of his shoulder, the slight bent on one leg—

“Rather than going through the trouble, what if I show you my timer now?” KID held up a finger. “On the condition you’ll stop coming to my future heists.”

All the weird thoughts were temporarily thrown out of Shinichi’s mind as he frowned, and then scoffed. “Have I been too much of a challenge for you?”

“Yes, or not really.” KID smiled, and then shrugged. “I don’t mind the thrill… but I do mind how your presence has messed with my feelings.”

“...”

“...”

The following silence was so loud and deafening that when KID burst out laughing two seconds later, Shinichi thought his head was going to be split into half.

“I’m _joking_ , detective.” 

Shinichi was tempted to step forward and whip KID’s hat off his head. “It’s not funny.” 

“Pardon me.” KID heaved out a long sigh and wiped a tear pretentiously under his hat. “But yes, the only reason is because you’re an annoyance to my plans.”

Shinichi snorted, inwardly wishing he could say _touché_ back; his plan to live a peaceful life had been turned upside down thanks to the thief as well. But that wasn’t the main point right now. Finally, after all these nights of chasing, consecutive weeks of thinking and years of awful dreading, Shinichi would know the truth—the truth which he couldn’t uncover himself because there was nothing logical about soulmates and timers. But no. That wasn’t the main point either. 

“That’s it?” Shinichi crossed his arms. “Nothing else?”

“Of course.”

“So it doesn’t have anything to do with the two gunshots fired during your last heist?” 

The clouds shifted, covering the sky and the moonlight that was shining down onto KID a second ago, and just like his clothes, his mood darkened; the slight lower of his head casted longer shadows that hid what Shinichi thought was his pursed lips. 

“No,” KID said, his voice lacking the honeyed tone that made the thief who he was. 

“Who fired those shots?” 

“There were no shots.”

“Liar.”

KID’s last heist a week ago involved a ruby brought in from Africa by some old and wealthy millionaire. It looked like all the Big Jewels that Kaitou KID always stole—as per usual. Plenty of officers were called in to guard the private museum the millionaire built—nothing out of the ordinary. Everything happened as expected, including the moment when KID swooped in and claimed the gem before disappearing.

And then the two gunshots changed everything.

It wasn’t Shinichi’s imagination. Everyone heard it, even the old millionaire who was relying on his hearing-aids most of the time. But nothing was captured on the security feed since KID tampered with them, and it was hard to know where the sound exactly came from when the museum was eight stories high and a couple of thousands square feet wide. 

But ten minutes later KID was found flying off the sixth floor window. _Unharmed_ , Shinichi had assumed.

_“I don’t think we should make assumptions like this.”_

Kuroba’s words haunted Shinichi until the day KID’s sent in his new heist note.

The owner had then accused one of the police officers of firing the shots while Inspector Nakamori dismissed it as one of KID’s tricks; there were no bullet shells found after all. But Shinichi still remembered exactly what those two sounds sounded like, and he bet his entire Sherlock Holmes book collection that they were definitely gunshots. 

KID let out a low chuckle, which Shinichi didn’t find amusing to follow after briefly recounting the memory of that heist in his head. 

“I don’t know what you want me to say, detective.” 

“The truth.”

“I did. But you called me a liar.”

This interrogation was harder than Shinichi had thought. He pushed his hands deep in his pockets and prepared himself for a breath to start the long rant of proof and evidence he had, but KID stopped Shinichi with a raised hand, as if knowing full well what he was about to do.

“I can’t tell you the things you want to hear, but I can tell you whatever that happened is none of your business,” KID said.

”Murders are my area of interest, so yes, it’s my business.”

KID gestured a hand over his body. “I’m pretty sure I’m still alive now.”

“Attempted murder counts too.”

KID laughed. “Says the one who shot at me twice?”

“Don’t change the subject.” Shinichi took a step forward. “ _This_ incident is different from the other murders or terrorist attacks we encountered before. Their target of murder is yo—”

“Do you want to see my timer or not?” KID said, doing exactly what Shinichi told him not to. 

“...I can’t.”

KID was already fiddling with his glove like a tease to unravel the timer hidden underneath. “What do you mean you can’t?”

“I can’t forsake the bigger problem just to see your timer.” 

“It’s really not your—”

“You’re part of my concern, KID.”

KID’s head shot up so fast it was a wonder how his hat still remained on his head (and for a second Shinichi caught a glimpse of his eyes, and they almost looked too blue to be true). “How so?”

“Is a reason necessary?” Shinichi said. “Even after so many cases I would never understand the murderer’s reason to kill someone. But as for saving someone—even a criminal like you—a logical mind isn’t needed, right?”

KID was still for a moment, and for a second Shinichi thought he’d convinced him to say the truth—

“You’re really persistent, detective... But is that it?” KID said, the last four words laced with a perfect imitation of Shinichi’s tone and voice from earlier. “Nothing else?”

Shinichi scowled at KID’s antics, but hesitated for his own reasons. “No.”

“So it doesn’t have anything to do with the possibility that I’m your soulmate?” 

Given KID’s infamous reputation and capabilities of digging into one’s background, Shinichi really shouldn’t be surprised; even normal civilians like Kuroba and Nakamori knew from gossip after all. But he still spent the next two seconds gaping at KID before registering the fact he had yet to reply.

“Are we?” Shinichi countered. 

KID shrugged. “There’s no difference.” There was something accusatory in his tone, but KID continued before Shinichi could point it out aloud, “Those hypothetical shots are still none of your business.”

“I’ve made it clear that—”

“I don’t need you to save me, detective.” KID pulled a glove out. “You should save your time on someone who’s worth it.”

“ _But you’re worth it,_ ” was what Shinichi wanted to say, but he didn’t, or couldn’t, not that it mattered anyway. Because those words would reach KID too late as he had twisted his wrist to show Shinichi the thing he didn’t want to see anymore.

His timer. 

His _ticking_ timer. 

On KID’s pale and smooth wrist was a long row of numbers counting down, and there went one second, two second—

There were three years’ worth of seconds to go before KID would meet his soulmate.

Shinichi’s chest turned tight. Chest? He figured it was his chest. Nothing to do with the heart. He continued to stare, eyes refusing to leave KID’s wrist until he started fitting his glove back into his hand. 

“I’ve fulfilled my side of the deal.” KID also rolled down his sleeve. “This concludes the end of the challenge.”

No, Shinichi was not done. He still wanted to investigate the two gunshots. He still wanted to come to KID’s heist and annoy him, if that was the least he could do. Shinichi still wanted to do a lot more things, but just like his chest, his throat was clamped shut from—

KID began walking, his feet padding softly against the ground and towards Shinichi. One step, two steps... Their distance reducing.

Shinichi had faced countless murderers and serial killers in his life, and in between a couple of months there would always be one that tried to resist arrest, using their hidden weapon and slashing it around as a threat. But none of them—and none of those instances—got Shinichi to feel like this; too stunned to blink, too nervous to move, and eventually learning that holding his breath wouldn’t stop his heart from beating like it was about to explode too.

KID was now standing in front of Shinichi.

“Consider this a parting gift,” he said, slipping a blue rose he had whipped out into Shinichi’s hands. 

(KID’s scent. Fingers touched.)

Of all things, Shinichi managed to choke out: “KID.”

KID lowered his head, his glove hand slipping away from Shinichi. 

(The smell of earth. The prick of a thorn.)

“I’m sorry.” 

With no bombs for fancy exits, KID stepped around Shinichi and walked away, away from the creek and away from the set-up Shinichi had planned at the bottom of the main road; KID was returning towards the direction of the mansion. 

(It took Shinichi a while before realizing the thief actually came all the way down here for him.)

.

.

Shinichi reached home in the dead of night, but instead of his bedroom, he made a detour for his library, one hand holding onto the blue rose he had carried all the way back alone.

He twirled the rose for an half an hour or so on his leather chair, thinking; because it was the only thing he was good at.

Thinking.

Thinking.

What was the point of crossing paths with the people you couldn’t be with? Why did he meet Ran at that elementary school? Why did he board the helicopter and get into a face-off with KID? Why did everything happen just for it to end like this?

Thinking.

Thinking.

Standing up, Shinichi locked the blue rose inside his drawer and left the library, having already come up with an answer—it was simply his fate to have his life wrecked by fate itself.

It wasn't exactly a ground-breaking revelation… just a heart-breaking one.

* * *

Kaito texted Aoko the moment he wanted her to think he woke up and told her he wasn’t going to school with her today; they had agreed to set aside at least one day of the week to walk to school together no matter rain or shine, as part of the promise to never let their years of friendship die. Kaito loved her for it, but the current issue on hand was an emergency, and something he couldn’t consult her about. So even if Aoko texted back to ask him why, he would pretend he didn’t see until she reached school and chided him for it. 

Checking that his message was delivered successfully, Kaito trudged through the school gates and into the building. Though it wasn’t the first time, his classmates were still surprised to see him arrive so early, and Kaito had to pretend to not mind when he found Hakuba’s seat empty; it seemed the detective’s early arrival to read his books in school wasn’t the only routine he had. 

Kaito pretentiously yawned and dropped his bag on his seat before dragging himself out of the classroom. Once he was out of their sight, he dashed down the corridor and even slipped between a pair of soulmates holding hands in the middle of the corridor. Call him bitter, but everyone would probably think he was only a nuisance. 

Hakuba was washing his hands when Kaito burst into the restroom. He stomped past him to knock all the stalls open, and after checking they were all empty, he returned to Hakuba’s front with crossed arms. The detective had already dried his hands and was watching Kaito amusingly the entire time.

“To what do I owe this honour of having you here so early in the morning again?” 

“What happened during Shinichi’s case?” Kaito asked.

Hakuba blinked. “He has a lot of cases. You need to be more specific.”

“Right, there’s a lot indeed,” Kaito muttered, pulling out his phone. “It’s about the recent one when he… got mysteriously assaulted by someone after solving it.” 

Kaito tapped on his note app and scrolled through all the browser links he had copied and pasted last night on his bed. He was ready to show the _evidence_ Hakuba so ever loved if needed, but at the same time he hoped the blonde would just answer so he wouldn’t have to tap into any of the links. Kaito didn’t want to read about Shinichi getting hurt again, what’s more when he hadn’t finished guilt-tripping himself for leaving his soulmate alone in the forest and cruelly making that meeting their last—

“Ah.” Hakuba rubbed his chin as he gazed at the ceiling. “I see you’ve been keeping an eye on the news.”

“What’s the case?” Kaito prompted, ignoring Hakuba’s remarks. Kaito actually hadn’t been checking for Shinichi’s updates since a long time ago (for the sake of himself); he only started looking up the internet _after_ he accidentally saw some trending tweets and reports of the famous high-school detective getting hurt.

“Before I answer, what actually happened between you two?”

“...Like what?” 

Hakuba was too elegant to roll his eyes so he settled for a thin smile. “I’m asking you.”

“Nothing happened.”

“If nothing happened you would have long asked Kudo-kun yourself and not through me.” Hakuba paused, as if challenging Kaito to correct him, which he didn’t. “And if nothing happened, you wouldn’t have put on the guise as the Superintendent General and sent Inspector Nakamori an official letter to ban Kudo-kun from going to any more of KID’s heists too.”

“...I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Oh I’m sure you do, Kuroba. You copied my father’s signature and seal so perfectly that I didn’t doubt it until five hours and three minutes later.” Hakuba looked at him with a hint of disdain and leaned against the basin, an ankle crossed. “For keeping this secret till this day, I’m considered your accomplice, you know?”

Kaito actually intended to have Hakuba banned as well, but he knew if he had sent in the letter alongside with the Shinichi’s, the blonde would immediately wreak havoc and ask his father about it. At least he managed to stall Hakuba for five hours so he didn’t go yapping around and make things more complicated. 

He would have to deal with Hakuba’s nuisance later but for now he had a bigger problem in hand, literally. Kaito’s grip tightened around his phone. 

“Still don’t know what you’re talking about,” Kaito grunted and racked a hand through his hair. “So are you going to say or not?” 

“Gossips about timers and soulmates are fine, but for these serious matters like this aren’t things I can simply share to a civilian… Well, unless you can bring something to the table for us?” Hakuba smirked. “Your expertise? Or maybe share some experience you have with dealing with dangerous people?”

“I have nothing of that sort.”

“Ah,” Hakuba said with the same and annoyingly enlightened voice again. “Then I have nothing to tell you.”

Kaito pursed his lips at that, but truthfully it didn’t matter. Hakuba had—intentionally or not—divulged enough for Kaito to interpret the rest. He should have known even if he wanted Shinichi out of trouble, the detective would land himself in one. He could only wonder the worst: what if whoever the person, or group, that assaulted Shinichi was as heinous as Snake and his organization?

No, _no_. Kaito inwardly shook his head. There couldn’t be such a coincidence; how many bad guys could there be in Tokyo alone? But the way Hakuba said it… Maybe he was just trying to mess with Kaito’s head.

Maybe. 

Or maybe not?

Kaito’s hand slowly snaked from his pants and into his pocket, feeling the deck of cards he carried with him all the time. His thumb brushed against the box’s silky surface, and from the sense of his memory it felt as if he could feel the tiny ink prints of Shinichi’s words and signature on. 

Kaito had regretted when he didn’t heed Jii's warnings and accepted Shinichi’s challenge, continuing and allowing their interactions to grow to the point where it shouldn’t have. And now, he wondered if he should regret banning Shinichi from his heists. At least Kaito knew who he was dealing with, but for Shinichi’s mysterious assaulter... he couldn’t care even if he wanted to.

_“You’re part of my concern, KID.”_

Ugh. Was this how Shinichi felt? Kaito didn’t expect whatever feeling this was to have its own brand of pain, and he hated it more than anything else—

“Here’s my advice,” Hakuba said coyly, and in the most disgusting way possible to interrupt Kaito’s thoughts. 

“No—”

“I remember you mentioning to Nakamori-san you have Kudo-kun’s email.” Hakuba nodded his head at Kaito’s phone. “You can try contacting him as _you_ , if that helps.”

Kaito frowned. “If that helps with what?”

“Helps with making him notice you.” Hakuba looked at Kaito up and down in an uncomplimentary manner. “And who knows, maybe one of your silly comments can help with his mood too.”

“...Huh?”

“He seems down,” Hakuba explained, “like you as of late.”

“I’m not down.” Kaito glanced away. “And your advice sucks.”

“You’ll never know until you try, no?” Hakuba left the basin and patted a hand over Kaito’s shoulder. “Here’s another advice from me: Feel free to handle things your way, but don’t die while you’re at it.”

“Uh…”

Taking the opportunity, Hakuba patted Kaito’s shoulder again before leaving the bathroom.

Kaito watched Hakuba go with two raised eyebrows; he had expected the detective to annoy him with more questions and not end it just like this. That was how it was to live a life like a snowball set on a downward slope of a mountain—a small and pleasant outcome could come as quite a shocker.

But good things don’t last, Kaito realized, as once he looked down at his phone and at all the browser links, half of that blessing he felt was gone.

* * *

Shinichi stared at his phone and refreshed the news app to check for updates. There was none so far, though it had already been twenty minutes since Shinichi left the murder scene with everything solved. Perhaps the reporters were still trying to get more facts from Inspector Megure who was still there, but Shinichi just wanted the article to be up as fast as possible. He needed something to bury the articles of his assault once and for all.

And after that he needed to lie low for a bit.

Shinichi wasn’t going to let his assaulter go. Definitely not. It was just a rest before the marathon; he needed the limelight to shine somewhere else so he could prepare himself for something bigger. For something even more dangerous—

_“You’re really persistent, detective.”_

The traffic light ahead finally turned green as everyone around Shinichi began to walk, crossing the road for the opposite street to where the bigger malls and train station were. Shinichi did stall for a second before he mindlessly followed too, and he dumped every memory behind like the invisible footprints he stomped onto the ground. 

Shinichi never bothered before, but now that he wasn’t allowed to attend any heists anymore, he had started to appreciate counting them (like how people only yearn something once it was lost): It had been three weeks and five heists since he last saw the thief upfront. But despite the long absences, and how he had been busy with his private investigations, Kaitou KID never failed to linger on his mind. Literally. With his voice and all...

Sighing softly, Shinichi stared at his phone again and refreshed the news app—

An email notification pinged. 

[Kaito]  
_you shouldn’t be using your phone while on the road yo._

Shinichi blinked, and he would've stopped in the middle of the traffic if it wasn’t for an old lady’s cane that knocked into his school bag when he almost did. As he managed to keep up his walking pace, he glanced amongst the other pedestrians, until he spotted the sender of the email standing on the street he was crossing towards. 

Donned in the black school uniform that Hakuba wore too, Kuroba Kaito waved.

Shinichi could wave back and continue his way after having the greetings done and proper, but like some magnetic force, Shinichi’s legs shifted towards Kuroba’s direction instead.

(If it wasn’t Shinichi’s imagination, he thought Kuroba’s grin grew a little wider with every step of distance he closed between them.)

“What are you doing here?” Kuroba spoke first once Shinichi arrived at his front. 

Buildings around, people passing, Shinichi would ask the same until he realized he was the one out of place, recalling this district being pretty close to Ekoda. He checked his phone. The news of the murder still hadn’t been broadcasted yet, but there shouldn’t be any harm telling Kuroba the basis of it for now.

He tucked his phone into his pocket. “I just finished assisting the police to solve a murder case nearby.” 

Rather than what Shinichi thought a fan would react, Kuroba frowned. “You were on a case?”

“Yeah.”

“What about your injury?”

At the mention, Shinichi reached a hand for the back of his head. The bump was still there, but he had taken off the bandage after a day; the news and bad attention was already enough to cause him headaches and he didn’t need any overreactions from Ran or anyone else in school... though he hadn’t thought about outsiders like Kuroba to care. But that wasn’t surprising since it was all over the news anyway.

“It’s fine,” Shinichi said.

Kuroba’s unconvinced face didn’t really go well with his nod. “That’s good to hear.” He paused. “But, um, what exactly happened?” 

The one million dollar question. Shinichi actually didn’t tell anyone the full story except for his parents and Professor Agasa (who had helped to get rid of some gossipy reporters outside of Shinichi’s home). Not even Ran knew everything when she demanded for answers through a phone call later that night too; Shinichi only told her in bits and twisted some of the parts, explaining he got hit with a bat by one of the cafe employees because of his verdict that the cafe boss was the murderer for the case—the employee refused to accept the truth as he was best friends with the owner.

It was a feasible-enough story, and Ran believed him. 

But in truth…

Shinichi stared at Kuroba, who was looking at him expectantly. 

But in truth Shinichi had followed his attacker—who was one of the customers stuck in the cafe during the investigation—as he looked more suspicious than the actual convicted murderer (though Shinichi managed to put aside his judgement and solve the case right). And when the stalking failed and Shinichi got duped and was lured into the alley behind the cafe, the attacker hit him with a bat and made Shinichi ingest some kind of pill. The latter part, luckily, didn’t happen as Inspector Megure had spotted the tussle in time and stopped it from happening. The man then yanked the pill out of Shinichi’s mouth before he fled the other end of the alley, his long silver hair dancing past the back of his black coat as he did…

Thanks to either Shinichi’s talent or genes, it was always easy for him to bring up a memory like plucking a book out of his library shelves, but never had he had one so vivid like he was experiencing it again and not just a flashback; the horrible, acidic taste that climbed up his throat, as if the pill was still stuck in his mouth rather than out—

Kuroba suddenly leaned in towards Shinichi’s face, blue eyes blinking curiously. “Are you okay?”

Shinichi forced himself to swallow. “I’m fine.” He turned away, thinking. Though Shinichi had told Inspector Megure and his other subordinates—who were also there assisting the aftermath of his attack—to keep the matter under wraps, he couldn’t be sure if words didn’t spread to others in the headquarters. But judging from Kuroba’s response, even if Hakuba did catch a whiff of the rumour, he might not have told anything to his classmate.

Regardless, it wasn't as if Shinichi had to tell Kuroba anything; Shinichi could just shrug Kuroba off and say he didn’t want to share what happened, or that he had forgotten, because his memory was hazy and something like that… 

But something in Shinichi still compelled him to say _something,_ and he decided to repeat the same story he told Ran to Kuroba.

Kuroba’s expression was unreadable the entire time of the tale and Shinichi couldn’t tell if he believed his story or not. But what surprised Shinichi more was his own hesitation when he recounted it—he found it so easy to lie so blatantly to Ran, and yet it felt different towards Kuroba. Maybe it had to do with Kuroba’s physical presence versus Ran’s phone call, or their formalities versus Ran’s familiarity, but no matter what, Shinichi didn’t appreciate this feeling. 

Yet somehow it seemed a little familiar, too.

“I see,” Kuroba said after Shinichi summarized his story, his tone as bland as his expression. He glanced at Shinichi's head. “I hope you’re feeling better now.”

“Yeah.” _At least that’s the truth._ “And anyway I’m going to the train station,” Shinichi continued before Kuroba could comment on anything further. It was best to move on, literally. Shinichi then gestured to the direction where he was about to head towards. “Are you going this way?”

Kuroba swung his bag over his shoulder. “Yeah, I—”

“Wait a second. Is that him?”

“Oh my god I think it is!”

More hush and excited whispers came from behind as Shinichi and Kuroba turned, finding three girls fidgeting and bumping giddily among each other's shoulders. Seeing their white uniform and red skirt, Shinichi knew they weren’t from either of their schools.

“Hi!” The bravest-looking girl among the trio stepped forward, her phone in hand. She glanced at Shinichi, and then to Kuroba. “We’re your fans! Do you mind taking pictures with us?”

“Oh.” Shinichi nodded. “Sure—”

“Thank you!” The girl let out a squeal and gestured to her other two friends before shoving her phone into Shinichi’s hand. The three girls proceeded to stand around Kuroba, their cutesy poses all ready for the camera.

Shinichi blinked, before robotically raising his arms to snap a couple of photos. 

Kuroba looked like he was about to burst from laughing in every frame.

“Thanks again!” The girl took the phone from Shinichi’s grasp. But he wasn’t the only one a little confused at the situation. Kuroba’s brows were wiggling around, as if he couldn't put them in place like his thoughts. 

“Oh!” Kuroba suddenly slapped a fist into the palm of his hand. “You were all from that ski resort a few months back.”

The second girl laughed and nodded. “Not bad, you remembered your audiences.”

Shinichi was lost.

They chatted for a moment, about Kuroba’s videos(?) and how they wished he had brought tamago(the egg?) so they could see it. Shinichi was actually contemplating if this was the best moment to leave and save the aftermath embarrassment, but for some reason Kuroba was constantly darting him a glance that made Shinichi unable to. In the end their chat wasn’t long either as the girls had to hurry off to watch their movie, and Kuroba watched them go with a heave of a breath. Not a sigh, as Shinichi detected a hint of laughter in it. 

Shinichi was still lost, though.

“Sorry,” Kuroba said, turning to Shinichi after the girls were out of sight. “Did you mistake them as your…”

Shinichi raised a hand. “Please don’t bring this up ever again.”

“Ok.” Kuroba grinned. “I’ll just keep them in my head for the laughs.”

Shinichi narrowed his eyes, regretting a little that he had stayed on for this. He began striding towards the direction of the metro station.

“I’m joking yo.” Kuroba caught up pretty quickly, not that Shinichi tried hard to shake him off anyway. He was still confused and he didn’t like himself to be; and he still had a couple of questions for Kuroba to answer.

“You know them?” Shinichi started.

“Yeah, they are from Keitan High, another high school that stayed in the same ski resort as mine during a school trip a few months back. We didn’t interact much, until there was an unexpected blizzard on the last day and we were pretty much stuck in the resort together,” Kuroba went on without needing Shinichi to prompt, “Everyone was starting to get bored and the teachers suggested holding a talent competition among the students, and well, I joined, not-so thanks to Aoko.” 

“Talent competition,” Shinichi echoed as he began recalling and picking out the words from the chat. “So… Are you a chef?” 

Kuroba blinked, and raised an eyebrow. “What gave you that impression?”

Honestly Shinichi wasn’t really confident in his answer as he also wondered how Kuroba was supposed to show off those skills in a resort. Perhaps like whipping out knives and cutting some tomatoes into perfect slices in the air? Despite the absurdity, the image didn’t seem all that weird when Shinichi pictured Kuroba doing it. 

“The girls earlier mentioned _tamago_ , no...?” Shinichi then frowned, his voice trailing off as he watched Kuroba’s face twisted into a mix of pain and hilariousity. This wasn’t the Kuroba Kaito Shinichi knew when they first met; he looked much more reserved and brooding the entire time, but for some reason, again, Shinichi thought this annoying version might fit Kuroba’s demeanour more than anything else. 

“W-What?” Kuroba nearly choked from his wheezes. “They were actually referring to my dove. Its name is Tamago with the capital T.” 

“Dove?” Shinichi gaped. “You named your dove after a food?”

Kuroba wrinkled his nose. “Is there something wrong?”

Shinichi cleared his throat. “No, nothing’s wrong,” he said, before realization dawned upon him. “So you’re a magician, then.”

Kuroba registered Shinichi’s surprised answer for a second and skipped over a crack in the pavement without looking. “Hakuba didn’t tell you,” he said, as though it was a statement and not a question. Shinichi thought to answer him anyway.

“No he didn’t.” Shinichi glanced at Kuroba from the corner of his eyes. “And since you mention this, it means you know I met him.”

“Yeah. He, uh, told me.”

Shinichi nodded. “I didn’t delve into anything more about you and Nakamori besides asking Hakuba if he knew both of you, though I ended up knowing Nakamori is indeed Inspector Nakamori’s daughter after that.” Shinichi regarded Kuroba’s silence. “I hope you’re not offended or something.”

Kuroba chuckled. “Why would I be offended?”

“I felt maybe I should’ve bothered. To know something more than you being Hakuba’s classmate.”

“Well, at least now you know.” 

That was true. “So it explains why you carried that deck of cards that day,” Shinichi said, memories from the first day they met inexplicably started coming to him. “I hope I didn’t ruin your prop.”

Kuroba shook his head. “Nope, you didn’t.”

And another memory.

_“I don’t think we should make assumptions like this.”_

_“That’s unlike you to say such a thing.”_ Nakamori had raised an eyebrow at Kuroba in the cafe booth. _“Or is it because you can’t bear to see both of your idols being soulmates together?”_

Shinichi lowered his eyes to his timer. “I guess it also explains why you’re a fan of Kaitou KID, too.”

Even if Kaitou KID had occasionally dropped by in his thoughts, Shinichi didn’t much so remember or care about his cursed timer for the past three days, and indirectly, Kuroba was the first to break the streak. Shinichi managed to peel his eyes off his wrist as they slowed down to stop beside the traffic light, waiting for their turn to cross the second and last street for the station. 

Kuroba had also been quiet after Shinichi’s response.

“How’s your search with your soulmate?” Shinichi asked, uncharacteristically deciding to break the silence when he often preferred to live in it.

Kuroba laughed, and acted perfectly like he was. Acted, because Shinichi managed to detect some strain in his voice, “Honestly I haven’t had the time to care at the moment.” Kuroba shrugged and glanced at Shinichi. “What about you?”

On the cue the pedestrian lights turned green and they began walking alongside the crowd, saving Shinichi some seconds to think of a response. It was the second big question Kuroba asked today, but this answer was one that Shinichi hadn’t told anybody on this planet at all. 

That’s how life was for Shinichi now—constantly having to wonder whether he should lie after the next. 

But to be fair Kuroba’s question was a vague one; it really depended on how much Shinichi wanted to spill. But if he had to pick someone to practice on before eventually telling Ran and Sonoko the truth, he wouldn’t mind the person to be Kuroba. 

“Kaitou KID isn’t my soulmate.”

At the moment Shinichi finished his statement, they reached the other side of the crossing and Kuroba nearly tripped over the curb. Shinichi wanted to grab his arm in reflex, but Kuroba had already steadied himself and stepped away, far enough that Shinichi’s stretched hand wasn’t able to reach. 

Shinichi lowered his arm.

“Wow. Like, um. _Wow_ ,” Kuroba spoke as if that was the only word he knew out of the dictionary. “Did you actually check with Kaitou KID?” 

“You can say so.” 

Kuroba looked at Shinichi warily. “Are you okay?”

That... was a weird response. The stores they were passing didn’t have any reflective mirrors for Shinichi to check how he looked, but he didn’t think whatever expression he had on his face would make Kuroba say what he’d said, though ironically after registering that thought, Shinichi frowned.

“Of course I’m okay,” he retorted, with a confident intonation that perfectly covered up the lie that he was so, _so_ afraid for anyone to know.

(Even himself.)

(Because he was definitely not okay.)

“Right.” Kuroba nodded, his eyes looking ahead at the distance. “Of course you’ll be.”

Ignoring the chatter and passing cars, silence sunk between them again. A signpost indicated there was less than a minute walk before Shinichi reached the station, but he couldn’t tell if this was exactly a good or bad thing for the current awkward atmosphere...

Even when Shinichi always made sure to give all the victims he’d crossed path the justice they deserved, he never really considered himself the most righteous person; he still made a fair share of careless and bad mistakes in his life, though he tried to find comfort in the fact that for most instances, he only hurt himself. 

But this time it wasn’t a careless mistake, and neither was Shinichi being overreacting or sensitive; no matter the case, he didn’t quite like the way he answered Kuroba’s question, and it certainly didn’t help to know that Kuroba did nothing to deserve it at all.

And the way Kuroba responded made it all the much sadder—

_Sadder?_

Shinichi didn’t have the chance to figure his thoughts out as they finally reached the train station. Kuroba stopped first, swinging his bag towards the stairs as a gesture for Shinichi to go.

“So here we are. I’ll see you, if I see you again,” Kuroba said with a grin. 

This time Shinichi couldn’t tell if it was an act or not. 

Shinichi nodded. “Yeah.” It was logical. They would see each other _if_ they see each other again… _Or_ if Shinichi made that happen himself. Without needing to check his wrist, the image of the red digit carved in his mind was enough to make him cringe inwardly at himself. Hadn’t he already learnt the lesson? That there wasn’t a point to defy fate? Besides, if he really had the time to think about all these stuff, he should be spending it more on investigating the man in black and the mysterious drug—

“One more thing,” Shinichi said, swallowing the acidic feeling he felt rising in his throat. “If the girls earlier met you physically at the ski resort, what videos were they referring to?” 

Kuroba rubbed his nose sheepishly. “Well… I’ve actually performed at other random places too and Aoko always records and uploads them on an account. For memory’s sake, she said, but yeah, people started asking and watching. So...”

“Wow.” And now Shinichi understood how Kuroba felt when there really wasn’t any other word in the dictionary to describe this moment. 

Kuroba waved a hand. “It’s nothing.” 

“Can I have the link?”

The smile on Kuroba’s face faltered. “W-What?”

There might not be a point—like what he had decided ten seconds ago—but for a short moment, something like this meeting with Kuroba, Shinichi understood what benefits a distraction could bring to one’s mind; it wouldn’t change what already happened, but at least Shinichi could live on with a bit lesser of the pain.

“I believe your fans earlier must have seen something in your talent to come up to you like that,” Shinichi said, “and honestly, I’m intrigued.”

Luckily Kuroba’s silence didn’t last or Shinichi might start to feel bad for the pressure. “I can send you the link. Via email.” Kuroba chewed on his lower lip. “Just don’t… think too much.”

Shinichi was about to ask what he meant when a buzz came from his phone. He checked his lit-up screen, and sighed, grateful, that an article about the murder he solved was finally posted. As long as it served its purpose to let the old news die, the details didn’t matter and Shinichi wouldn’t bother himself reading about it. He pocketed his phone, more planning running through his mind. 

“Thanks in advance.” Shinichi took a step towards the stairs. “I’ll go for now.” 

Kuroba gave a wave. “Remember not to use your phone while on the road!” 

It was weird to find Kuroba reminding Shinichi of this when he looked exactly like the type to do the same guilty thing. Still, he appreciated the care, and mustered a smile back in gratitude before he ran down the stairs to the station.

As Shinichi tapped his card past the gate and waited for the train to arrive, his phone buzzed, and again for a second time; two notification came, one being another news reporting about the murder, and the second being Kuroba’s email.

Shinichi opened his email.

The link was attached with nothing else written. 

Plugging in his earpiece, Shinichi pressed on the link.

He was directed to the promised channel on the video app he already had installed on his phone, to find around a dozen videos, the oldest being two years old and the most recent one uploaded three months ago.

Shinichi started with that first upload. 

In the middle of the third video—filled with consistent quality of content—Shinichi tapped out of his train station and was walking back to his home on auto-pilot. Even for the earliest videos Shinichi could already see Kuroba’s exceptional talent, in a way Shinichi thought he _deserved_ to be neglected by Kuroba’s fans. And indeed Kuroba didn’t lie and had a dove named Tamago, and he called it out for his performance the most often among his other doves (which were also named as foods). Shinichi noted the setting and audiences were different in every video, but the gleeful cheer at the start and end was always there, and they definitely belonged to Nakamori Aoko.

Pausing the video, Shinichi replied Kuroba’s last email.

[Shinichi]  
_I don’t see why you would think an average of 40k views per video is considered nothing. I should’ve asked for an autograph before you go._

Ten seconds later:

[Kaito]  
_omg pls don’t._

Shaking his head with a smile, Shinichi changed his app back to the video. As he hovered his thumb over the play button to resume, he stopped, eyes staring at the unmoving screen instead; Shinichi had it paused at the moment when Kuroba had finished his performance, and he was bowing with an arm behind his back while the other was bent over his chest. He didn’t notice it at first when he was focused on dissecting the art behind Kuroba’s magic, but staring at the frozen frame made it all the more enlightening.

In that stance Kuroba looked almost chivalrous, almost charming...

Almost like Kaitou—

Shinichi thoughts stopped just like how his feet did, his auto-pilot mode ended right outside his iron gates. He glanced at his two-stories house through the grills and back to the paused video in his hand. 

_“Just don’t think too much.”_

Pocketing his phone in exchange for his keys, Shinichi briefly wondered if this was what Kuroba meant. But even if it wasn’t, it did mean something; a warning for his mind to not wander any further than where it should go.

He only wished it was as simple as it seemed. 

* * *

As foreshadowing as it could be, tonight’s steal was a blue sapphire called the _Moon’s Tear_ , but Kaito was used to all these weird names those owners or ancestors loved to call their jewels; this wasn’t the first time he encountered one titled with such fancy names—in fact there was one literally called _Pandora_ —and none of them shone red under the moon like it should. 

That was why Kaito didn’t put his hopes high for this heist or any other ones, given that he was already sceptical about the existence of the so-called myth in the first place.

But that wasn’t to say for Snake and his gang of fedora hats. 

Hakuba didn’t come tonight so things had been going as per usual for the first fifteen minutes of his heist. Blackout, smoke bombs, and then a couple of backflips here and there before Kaito broke the authentic jewel out from its case—the owner had decided to be a little creative and placed four other fakes to fool Kaitou KID. Kaito wished he could laugh in his police disguise. 

Kaito also knew, while being part of that discussion meeting he’d slipped into, was the countless different traps the owner had prepared on the building’s roof, like the electric-barbed ledge and the ankle cuffs hiding under the ground like a landmine, waiting to sprung out once the briefest of weight triggered it. 

Frankly he could humour the owner for his expensive investment and effort, but that is if he was up for it, which he wasn’t tonight. So instead of wasting time on the roof, Kaito—Kaitou KID—headed to the second highest floor, where he had a long and thin wire secured on top of a window’s ledge and connected to the opposite tall building; he had it all prepared in secret earlier.

He glanced out of the same window, watching the onetwothreefour _five_ damn helicopters hovering in the sky and near the roof, though all of them were oblivious to him and the existence of the wire. Kaito knew, too, that Inspector Nakamori had dispatched a couple of helicopters to the scene, and with this much around, their rotors would be controlling the wind instead of nature. Definitely a right choice to not waste his time on the roof. 

Kaito pulled out a rod from his suit, two steps and a jump away from zip-lining his way to escape—

“Kaitou KID,” a gruff voice came from behind. 

Kaito sighed out of the window, wondering if he should at least act a little surprised. He slowly turned, one hand still holding the rod while he materialized _Moon’s Tears_ in the other.

A hostage. A warning.

One wrong move and he could easily drop it down to the bottom of the building. 

“Good evening gentlemen,” Kaito said, staring from underneath his hat as he counted the onetwothreefour _five_ of Snake’s damn underlings standing around him. In the shadows, Kaitou KID’s white entirety should be standing out the most, but Kaito begged to differ; the glinting silver gun in Snake’s hand was the one that stole the limelight in the room. 

“Hand over the jewel and die,” Snake snarled.

Kaito tilted his head. “Do you mean _or_ die?”

“No.” Snake’s moustache twitched. He cocked the gun. “It’s definitely _‘and’_.”

“It’s not Pandora,” Kaito admitted. He already had the jewel checked much earlier than this, but in Snake’s eyes, KID’s calmness showed no truth or lies.

“I will check it myself,” Snake said.

“Sure.” Kaito lifted the jewel and positioned it between Snake and him. “Then here you go. Catch.” And like a game of baseball, Kaito struck the jewel with the rod and it flew straight into Snake’s face.

Snake’s growl was the loudest thing Kaito ever heard in his life, but that rank was immediately replaced by the next gunshot that pierced through the night.

Following Snake’s habit, there should be another fire, but it didn’t come, not that it was needed anyway.

Kaito stumbled back, feeling a thick and metallic-taste like vomit rising up his throat. 

“Get him!” Snake bent over to pick up the jewel.

Willing what he felt was his weakening strength, Kaito slammed all of his bombs—both flash and smoke—onto the ground before stumbling out of the window and placing the rod over the wire, letting gravity do the remaining work. Almost after an eternity of traveling to the other end of the wire, Kaito crashed through the open window of the opposite building, rolling over and over again across the cold and hard floor of what he knew was an abandoned office room.

The wire then snapped, just as Jii had made it to do after one zip-line was done.

It was a miracle Kaito didn’t slip off from the rod and fall in the middle of it all.

Definitely a miracle.

And at that thought, the first thing Kaito patted over his chest to touch—besides the inevitable red and sticky blood oozing all over his white suit—was his _miracle._

His lucky charm. 

The pain had started to kick in and Kaito groaned, which made the blood that was stuck in his throat earlier rise up to the back of his nose, making it difficult to breath. But none of those things could stop him as he continued to tug inside his inner suit’s pocket, until he pulled out the—

A shadow loomed over Kaito. 

Breathe.

Kaito peeled his eyes open wider. 

Breathe.

No.

Shit.

_Shit._

Shinichi.

In exchange of feeling the full impact of the pain, Kaito’s other senses—like hearing—were almost gone. And for a moment he wondered if maybe his sight had gone to hell too, though eventually he realized, after struggling a blink and two, it hadn’t; Shinichi’s crumpled-looking face was still there as he had kneeled beside Kaito. His mouth was moving in rapid speed, but his voice was going slow and echoey, almost like a lullaby.

 _“KID... You…”_ Shinichi shook his head, and leaned even closer, his scent filled Kaito’s nose for a millisecond, making it worth the effort to breathe. Then it was gone.

 _“Awake… Trust… Don’t...”_ And as Shinichi went on, he pressed a hand over Kaito’s chest and grabbed his hand. Or attempted, as Kaito already had his palm occupied with the most important thing in his world given by the most important person in this world, who was also right in front of him, too. 

Shinichi had stopped his blabbers, and his eyes were lowered and wide. 

Kaito could only take it as a comfort that reflecting in the blue pool of Shinichi’s eyes wasn't of horrification or anger.

Just…

Sadness.

Which wasn’t a good thing either, really. 

Finally after so long later, Jii appeared over Shinichi’s shoulder, his eyes wide and frantic and mouth moving just as rapidly as Shinichi, but this time there was absolutely no sound. 

And everything was blurry...

Then something warm. Two drops. Onto Kaito’s face.

Kaito’s eyes flickered.

Above him, Shinichi’s cheeks were wet.

And then there was darkness.

* * *

Konosuke Jii—who introduced himself despite the midst of hysteria—was Kaito’s right hand man, or accomplice, or guardian; whatever that fitted the narrative, Shinichi couldn’t care any less at this moment. And in Jii’s perspective, Shinichi was like Kaito’s distraction, a pest, or like a rival of some sort. But whatever their differences in roles, there was one thing they had in common now: To save Kaitou KID.

Or rather Kuroba Kaito.

From all the blood, neither Shinichi or Jii could tell if the bullet had hit or scraped the top of Kaito’s shoulder—right over his collar bone—and neither of them were confident enough to deal with the injury themselves despite their brief experiences and skills; the weight of the burden was a thousand times heavier than KID’s blood-soaked suit. 

The only way was to bring him to the hospital, and Shinichi explained to Jii his plan.

As Shinichi drove Jii’s car to the nearest hospital he knew of, Jii sat at the back with Kaito, one hand pressing the wound while the other carefully tugging out the accessories and outer attire that would scream _HEY_ _I’M KAITOU KID_ to the doctors and nurses. On his way, Shinichi also made a phone call.

_“Remember not to use your phone while on the road!”_

Cursing his memory, Shinichi stepped harder on the accelerator and prayed with all his might that the other side of the line would pick up.

It did. 

.

.

Shinichi didn’t realize it at first—not in the building or inside the darkness of the car—until he was sitting on a waiting chair outside the surgery theatre with his arms hanging between his legs; his hands and part of his long sleeves were stained with dried blood, but that was no surprise.

It was about his timer. 

For a couple of times his red zero had been flickering and fading. 

Shinichi didn’t know what it was supposed to mean, but he didn’t like it. 

Prying his eyes away so he could pretend the problem didn’t exist, Shinichi stared at his other hand, or rather the thing he was holding—the box of cards Kaito took out from his suit before he fell into unconsciousness. The upper part of the blue cover was soaked in blood, but underneath it all he could still see the faint patterns on the box, as well as his inked signature and the words that spelt _Thanks Kuroba._

In most cases Shinichi would find clues at first, followed by uncovering all the lies and narrowing down the suspects to one. But never had he been duped, all the way till the very last moment when the truth revealed by _itself_. Like this; only with the very evidence in his hand than he fully comprehended that Kaitou KID was in fact Kuroba Kaito. 

And the red zero, which Shinichi saw exposed under Kaito’s gloves. 

How could he be such a fool? Not to say he knew Kuroba Kaito well enough, but he knew Kaitou KID had walked on air, disguised as a woman and even ‘teleported’ for his heists, and yet with all these trickeries, Shinichi didn’t once question himself whether the timer KID showed was real and simply believed the thief, who also happened to be a damn good liar in most cases. What had made that night special for Shinichi to be so blinded by KID’s words so easily? Or did he want to believe it? That they weren’t soulmates? _But_ why? 

Why did he have so little faith in their fate?

Shinichi bent his back even further down between his legs. Not just blinded, Shinichi also felt terrible. A terrible fool. Even now, as he sat here digging through the memory with the best of his abilities, he wasn’t sure if he had recalled all the missing signs he should have seen, and all the moments when his unintentional words or actions had hurt both Kaito and KID. 

To think he had once proudly thought everything would be okay if he was the only one that got hurt; if he had stopped, and used his damn brain for a second besides deliriously thinking how he was the only one in pain, maybe things wouldn’t end up like this.

The automated door opened with a harsh whisper as Shinichi glanced up. Jii, who was silently sitting two seats away from Shinichi on the waiting chair, straightened too. But it wasn’t the surgery door that opened. 

On the other side of the corridor, Nakamori Aoko stumbled into the waiting room, her cheeks flushed and chest heaving. She was in what Shinichi guessed was her home clothes—a childish-like shirt and shorts—and her hair looked as messy as the last time he remembered seeing her in. 

“Aoko-chan.” Jii gasped, rising up from his seat. He darted a glance at Shinichi, but he had no answers to why she was here either.

Eyes originally fixated on the surgery room, Nakamori turned and looked at Shinichi, as if she didn’t see him in the first place before her gaze travelled to the blood in his hands. While they were waiting earlier Jii had changed out from his black clothes to something clean he had in his car, making Shinichi the only indication Nakamori could look out for. 

“Blood…” she blurted.

“Aoko-chan,” Jii repeated slowly. “What are you doing here?”

Nakamori pressed a hand on her forehead and took a deep breath. “I have a nurse friend who works here and she called and told me K-Kaito—” She choked. There were tears in her eyes but they were too stubborn, or unsure, to fall at the moment. “I couldn’t contact Kaito too, so I thought— I don’t know…”

Nurse friend… Now that Shinichi remembered, he had briefly suspected while watching two or three videos Nakamori uploaded that Kaito was performing in a hospital; though without any patients in sight, Shinichi saw multiple relevant medical posters and the sound of children’s laughter in the background.

He couldn’t believe the odds that it was the same hospital. 

(Or maybe it was fate that wanted to work this way.)

A chime came from Jii’s pocket as he quickly fished it out, his soft expression turned steely and serious before he picked up the call. 

“Madam.” A pause, and Jii sighed. “Yes. Kaito-botchama… He...”

Even though Aoko wasn’t looking, Jii gave her and Shinichi a nod before striding away and out of the automated door, leaving the two of them alone. There wasn’t a need for invitation, not that Shinichi had the energy to give either, as Nakamori stumbled a step forward and slumped onto the seat Jii sat earlier, the chairs underneath them whined loudly in the cold room. 

“I-Is Kaito really inside?” Nakamori asked, her voice hoarse and painful. Shinichi could relate.

He nodded.

Nakamori played with the hem of her shirt, and from his side-long glance, he knew she was staring at his hands. 

“Wh-What happened?”

Shinichi hadn’t planned for Nakamori to come, but at least he already had a story planned; the story that he also shared with Jii, to make sure both of their narratives were the same even if they were questions separately by someone unexpected.

“Kuro—” Shinichi swallowed. “Kaito was with me; I’d asked him to help with a private investigation of mine, but we ended up caught in an unexpected crossfire and...” Shinichi clutched the box in his hand. “It’s my fault.”

There was a mix of truth in the lies, but the last three words were genuine on its own. He didn’t even need to try to sound like he was guilty—because he already was. 

And speaking of guilt, he still owed Nakamori one more truth.

“Do you remember the time when you said you’ve become my fan because I helped to save the Clock Tower?”

Nakamori looked at him in confusion; she wasn’t ready to move on to the next topic when she hadn’t even fully registered his explanation of what happened. “W-Why are you—”

“The truth is it wasn’t me that saved it.” Shinichi dared himself to turn and look at Nakamori. “It was Kaito.”

She let out a shuddering breath. “W-What?”

Shinichi didn’t answer.

“What on ea-earth are you saying?” she blabbered on, her eyes blinking over and over as tears rolled down her rosy cheeks like fallen beads; the string of the heavy pearls finally snapped after enduring for so long. Even with the differences, there was still something about Nakamori that reminded Shinichi about Ran, and watching her cry only made things harder for him to endure the guilt. More than that, he knew how important Nakamori must be to Kaito, and Shinichi owed it to him, at least, to not make someone important in his life upset.

But what was done was done, and Shinichi lowered his head. “I’m sorry.”

“I-It doesn’t make any sense.”

There was once when Shinichi related to that too. “I know.”

Shinichi thought this was the end of their conversation, along with the end of Nakamori’s respect for him (probably so after she thought it was him that caused Kaito to end up like this). But after calming down, or at least long enough for Nakamori to find her voice to speak, she gestured to Shinichi’s hand. 

“That deck… does it belong to Kaito?” 

Shinichi squeezed it in his hand, almost scared to let go. Almost, because he wasn't quite sure if he was. Scared, because the box was one of the few remaining connections he had with Kaito, and if _this_ was gone...

“Yes,” Shinichi answered. It was the only thing he could say.

“K-Kaito always carries it along with him.” Nakamori sniffed and rubbed her eyes. “I pointed it out once and he was st-stupidly embarrassed, but that didn’t stop him.” Her hiccups grew a little louder. “I think he likes you, e-even if you’re not his soulmate.”

Shinichi was too afraid to respond or say a single word because he didn’t trust how his voice would sound. So he only nodded, and nodded once more as the following seconds that rolled into minutes were filled with nothing but silence, saved for Nakamori’s hiccups and snorts. 

(If this was her revenge for breaking her heart, Shinichi was more than willing to accept it. He deserved it after all.)

The automated door opened again with the same harsh whisper as Jii returned, his phone call had ended but he wasn’t alone. 

“Shinichi-kun,” Inspector Megure announced. He darted a glance at Nakamori, at the surgery room, and back to Shinichi, his expression looking as grave as the time he discovered Shinichi lying on the floor nearing unconscious in the alley. 

Shinichi wasn’t looking forward to the confrontation, but at least the person he had called for was finally here with the news he needed. The chair whined again as Shinichi stood up and he pocketed the card box deep in his pants (safe and so much secured unlike what he had done for his heart). He tentatively spared Nakamori a glance, to only regret as he witnessed her red, puffy eyes staring at him back.

Shinichi looked away. “We’ll speak outside,” he said to Inspector Megure before walking out of the waiting room, never looking back.

* * *

Everything was white.

A clock tower.

“My name is Kuroba Kaito! Nice to meet you!”

The timer still ticking.

Her smile.

_Scalpel._

Fire.

Funeral.

Guns.

A clock tower.

“Kaito! Your timer!”

Red zero.

_We need more blood bags._

His smirk.

“It’s a lie, obviously.”

And tears.

Everything was white.

* * *

There was a small garden in front of the hospital, one built specially for recovering patients and visitors to take in the fresh air and greenery during their stay, but being in the dead of the night, there wasn’t anyone except for a couple of nurses and doctors loitering and resting in between their breaks. They looked tired, which they deserved to be, and Shinichi didn’t think they would care about their presence, much less eavesdropped any of their conversation. 

Walking a little further into the garden, they stopped under a lamppost by a tree and Inspector Megure began.

“I’ve dealt with the nurses and taken over the report for”—He unfolded a piece of paper in his hand—“Kuroba Kaito’s gun injury. I’ll do a follow-up personally and will be keeping this under wraps.”

That had been Jii’s most worrisome concern—about how they were going to explain to the officers when they took over the hospital’s mandatory report of Kaito’s wound. Now Shinichi wished Jii was here to hear it, to perhaps laugh that his fretting was all for nothing, and that he should have known and leave his trust to Shinichi to settle the problem… and then Shinichi’s tired mind wondered why he was bothered with these thoughts, and why he wanted recognition for an effort that wasn’t much of his. A way to decrease the guilt? To ease his _own_ worry? What was he—

Shinichi nodded. “Thanks.”

“I’ve also secured that particular office building like you wanted.” Inspector Megure sighed, his eyes grew distant as if he was having some war flashbacks. “It was tough, coming up with an excuse of a warrant, and Inspector Nakamori wasn’t happy since he suspected KID had escaped in there, but at least he gave in easily in the end, probably knowing KID must be long gone.”

“Thanks again,” Shinichi said, still sincere to his words. And glad, too. Seeing there was no mention of any gunshot from Inspector Nakamori and Inspector Megure’s side, nobody must have heard it. Shinichi didn’t too, of course, being too far away and lying in wait inside the opposite building the entire time. This was the best case scenario.

“Speaking of which, I heard that you’re banned from all of Kaitou KID’s heist.” Inspector raised an eyebrow. “Why were you around at the scene? And what’s going on with the guy you’re covering up for the gunshot wound?” 

_Here comes the questions._

“Is this related to the… man in black?” Inspector Megure continued on, and stepped closer with a lowered voice. “Were you there to investigate that man?”

Silence.

“Did this Kuroba Kaito person get shot by—”

Shinichi pressed his thumb in between his brows. “I can’t say for sure. Not at the moment.”

It was the truth. Shinichi couldn’t think right now, and he had no idea what to think either; he couldn’t even speak and breathe properly without feeling like his chest was going to burst in flames. The back of his neck and head had started to grow hot too—the exact spot where the bat landed on weeks ago.

“You could at least tell me what’s your relationship with this Kuroba Kaito,” Inspector Megure tried again, his gaze hardened as to show _this_ question wasn’t something he would back down without an answer.

Relationship? What relationship? Shinichi fidgeted under the lamp light, his hand reaching to the bulge of his pocket, where the box of cards was kept safely in. Could he say their relationship was complicated? That was disgustingly cliché, and he hated the sound of it, but it was either that snarky answer or the real truth, which, maybe, could give Shinichi the only opportunity to know how it felt to speak the words he had thought he wasn’t meant to say in this life:

“He’s my soulmate.”

Inspector Megure’s stunned silence was dragged for a long while, but at least the outcome of the talk was desirable; the Inspector heaved a sigh, a sign he always gave when he decided to drop a subject, and patted the side of Shinichi’s arm instead, seemingly consoling. 

“Tell me the rest when you’re ready.”

The word was unsaid, but Shinichi couldn’t be any more thankful than this. He nodded.

Inspector Megure didn’t stay for long, knowing full well Shinichi wasn’t in the mood to discuss anything else. He left shortly after, leaving Shinichi standing in the garden after he rejected the offer to head back inside the hospital together. Facing the four damn walls was one thing, but he found it harder to face Nakamori. He would have to tell Jii about the updates later. And later… if Kaito...

“Kudo-kun.”

Shinichi slammed his shuffling foot onto the ground, barely regaining his balance before raising his head up and towards the source of the voice.

When their eyes met, Hakuba Saguru smiled, hands in his pockets as he continued strolling his way towards Shinichi across the concrete path.

Shinichi had taken the few seconds of opportunity to steady his composure. “Hakuba,” he started, and continued when he knew his voice was in control, “why are you here?”

Hakuba stopped in front of Shinichi, the light from the lamppost reflecting his blonde hair golden. “The same as you.”

Shinichi bit his inner cheeks, unsure if it was a trick question and he was trying to get an answer out from him instead. But it seemed Hakuba noticed his doubts and gave a smile, a small and appropriate one for the current situation. 

“For Kuroba,” the blonde clarified, and gestured a chin to the hospital building behind them. “In case you’re wondering, he’s still inside the operation theatre when I went up.”

It was nice for the update but rather, Shinichi was wondering about the _other_ thing. “Did Nakamori tell you about this?”

“No. My intel came from somewhere else.”

Ah. Given Hakuba’s powerful connection and reputation, _intel_ wasn’t something he would lack, and something Shinichi wouldn’t doubt him having in this case. Somehow and someway Hakuba must have picked on Shinichi’s requests… or maybe he had more ears and eyes on KID’s heist even when he wasn’t physically there. 

_Then does he know…?_

“Apologies, for being straightforward about this,” Hakuba said, glancing at the direction that Inspector Megure left (Shinichi sighed inwardly at that), “I’ve actually overheard what you and the Inspector just discussed.”

Shinichi’s neck grew warm. No matter when Hakuba had stumbled into their conversation, the part when Shinichi admitted Kaito was his _soulmate_ was pretty much the last. He fisted his hand and jabbed it inside the pocket, but if Hakuba noticed, and detected Shinichi’s attempt to hide his timer and its embarrassing reminder, he played a good act and pretended he didn’t.

“So you heard,” Shinichi said, having nothing else to say. 

“Detective of the West—Hattori Heiji. Do you know him?”

Shinichi frowned, not only about the abrupt change of conversation but also the fact that the term _did_ ring a bell. Was it from a letter? Nonetheless he shook his head. “Why?”

“I met Hattori on a case a few months back,” Hakuba explained. “We were tricked into a fake-reality TV show and got trapped on an island by the murderer—”

“What?”

“—but we solved the case, of course, or I wouldn’t be here.” 

Shinichi had no idea where this was going.

“Though Hattori and I are not on excellent terms during _and_ after the case, it’s still… bearable.” Hakuba smiled (Shinichi wasn’t sure if that was a real one). “We do have to meet professionally sometimes too, when our fathers are involved in any Police Convention.” 

“..I don’t understand the point you’re making,” Shinichi said. 

“Kuroba would rather die than receive any of my help or advice. But what about you?” Hakuba put out his arms. “My point is right now, I’m offering you an alliance with the two most valuable resources you can have, and you have the choice to accept it or not.” 

Shinichi felt the card box in his pocket and squeezed. “What’s the purpose of this alliance?”

“Unlike what everyone has thought, I didn’t come all the way from London to have a holiday here.” Hakuba's gaze turned as sharp as a hawk. “I know something is brewing in Japan.”

Shinichi steeled his features, grateful he didn’t let his tongue slip and said, “ _Likewise_.” Still, borrowing those exact words, Shinichi knew something was brewing too, and in the worst possible way; he had long suspected KID to be involved in something more than simply stealing gems, and his investigation about his long-haired assaulter only made the truth grow even uglier than it could. Dealing with one murderer could be considered a thrilling challenge, but dealing with a sinister group filled with _murderers_? A group that played with guns they shouldn’t own and tweaked with experiments that they shouldn’t do?

(Bullets and pills. 

Missing bodies and gems

Suicides and death.)

Despite the knowledge, Shinichi still wasn’t ready to stop _them_ , and this also made everything that happened part of his fault (his admission to Nakamori was not a lie at all); the fact that he did nothing besides continuing his investigation while occasionally passing KID’s heists, watching him fend against the law and darkness by himself from afar...

Kaito might not want Hakuba’s help, but what if Shinichi had offered his? What if Shinichi didn’t allow Kaito to push him away? What if Shinichi didn’t care about his timer—even if it ended up being fake—and focused on the real, prominent issue? Would things have been different? 

That was a stupid question.

“What else do you know?” Shinichi asked. 

“It’s not fair, Kudo-kun, if I’m the only one sharing.” Hakuba smirked—not the fine and polite smile he’d been using all the while. “The truth is I’m hoping to tap into _your_ resources too.”

Shinichi parted his lips and closed them again, thinking (because thinking was what he knew best). “Then how is Kaito going to be involved in this?”

Hakuba shrugged, suddenly looking all to relax. “Depends on your choice.”

“How so?”

Hakuba’s only response to that was glancing at Shinichi’s pocketed hand and nothing more. “You don’t have to decide now,” he said. “Just give it a thought and—”

“What are you two doing?” A voice barked from their sides. 

Shinichi and Hakuba turned, watching a slender figure walking—almost sashaying—towards them. For some heavenly reason the clouds had helped elevate the dramatic entrance as they shifted, keeping the figure in the shadows until the lamppost revealed it all; her bright red eyes and flowy, silky hair brushing across her almost bare shoulders and dark dress. From the voice Shinichi already knew the person was a female, but he didn’t expect how it could belong to this girl—or rather _woman_. She had sounded and acted way older than she looked. 

Hakuba’s frown had faltered to a gape. “Akako-san?” 

Shinichi blinked between the two of them. _They know each other?_

“What brings you here?” Hakuba asked.

Here? Not _out_ here? Adding on to that reaction, it was highly likely they didn't come together. Shinichi glanced at the woman’s wrist, but it was wrapped with a couple of thick golden bangles, obscuring anyone from seeing her red digits (or digit) perfectly. Still, Shinichi got his answer, seeing Hakuba’s timer still counting down and meaning that they weren’t soulmates, though it was a little strange about the way Hakuba looked at her, like she encompassed a form of beauty that Shinichi had missed; because the only thing he got out of her appearance was a shiver down his spine.

“I heard Kuroba-kun is injured”—the woman gave a thin smile—“from my reliable source.”

Shinichi couldn’t quite understand but it seemed Hakuba did, as he said nothing more and looked accepting towards her words, even. Was this a common thing? Nurse friend… intel… reliable source. All of Kaito’s friends sure had some interesting connections.

“Well, this is Koizumi Akako, also Kuroba’s classmate,” Hakuba said, but before he could gesture his hand to Shinichi for introduction, Koizumi already had her arms crossed and radiating an aura of confidence and wisdom.

“And you must be Kudo Shinichi,” she said. 

_Really interesting friends indeed._ “...Yes,” Shinichi replied, also noting Hakuba didn’t look surprised when Koizumi knew his name too.

Koizumi looked at him up and down, with the same amount of wariness that rivalled Shinichi's earlier tone. She then turned to Hakuba, as if she couldn’t care less about Shinichi’s existence anymore. 

“Really, what are you two doing?” she asked again, and continued on before Shinichi wondered if it was a real or rhetorical question (apparently it was the latter), “Kuroba-kun is already out of the operation room.”

Hakuba widened his eyes. “How did it go?”

“It’s a success but he hasn’t woken up. Nakamori-san is already in his ward.” Giving a last glance at Shinichi, Koizumi stalked away and towards the hospital entrance. 

Hakuba followed behind her instantly, only stopping when he realized Shinichi was still rooted to the ground; and that was all Hakuba could see on the outside. Inside, Shinichi’s heart was thumping so hard and fast like a drum in a ceremony, a ritual to call upon all sorts of emotions as they engulfed him in large and endless waves.

His chest hurt.

_But he’s okay. He’s okay. He’s okay—_

“Kudo-kun?” 

Shinichi blinked, finding Hakuba still looking at him, and ready to haul him inside the hospital and call for a doctor to look at him if necessary. Shinichi shook his head.

“I’ll catch up later.” 

Thankfully Hakuba left it there as he headed inside. 

Once both of Kaito’s classmates were out of sight, Shinichi ran a hand past his hair and sank onto the hospital park bench conveniently a few steps away, his legs trembling and not trustworthy to hold his weight. 

He understood how fear worked, but he never knew relief could be the next mind-exhausting thing in the world.

Taking in a deep breath, Shinichi tilted his wrist.

The red zero was still there, and it was no longer flickering like before.

* * *

_“Kaito-botchama?”_

.

.

_“Are you leaving?”_

.

.

_“...Thanks.”_

.

.

_Ow._

That was the first thing Kaito thought before he even peeled open his eyes. And he saw white. White again? Was there even a dark place in the first place? Even the moments before Kaito opened his eyes were white. 

White… White… He knew he was lying on a bed somewhere and it didn’t take long to figure that it was the hospital; the sanitised smell hit him second, followed by the sound of a monitor beeping above his head. So he was in the hospital? Was his injury that bad that he couldn’t have it settled at Jii’s or his house? What about the police? How would he explain about the bullet found in him? 

Kaito knew better than to move his body so he allowed his eyes to do more of the work. It was the day, he realized, as the room was lit up mostly by the light seeping through the translucent curtains and not the ceiling lights (how long had he been unconscious?). It seemed like he was settled in a private and not-to-shabby ward, given the large yet empty spaces around (kudos to his mom, probably, for spending the remaining funds left by his dad). He turned slightly to the left, catching a glimpse of a resting couch under the windows, and he slowly shifted his eyes to the right, where it was closer to the exit door and just a turn behind the bathroom (if he was going to plan his escape, he might as well plan to travel to the moon). 

White ceilings… White walls...

And a bundle of dark brown hair by his bed. 

Kaito widened his eyes, the monitor above him giving an erratic beep at that. He tilted his head up further to check what he had seen, but he regretted the next second as he let out a low groan when his shoulders were hit with a pang of soreness and jolt, both at the same time. As if things couldn’t get any worse, the monitor above him started beeping noisily again, and he wished he had the energy to smash it and shut it up.

Amidst Kaito’s turmoil, the figure beside him stirred. Head slowly raised, the messy brown locks parted to reveal two blue sleepy eyes blinking at him.

And then widened.

“Kaito!” Aoko jumped out of her seat, the visitor chair toppling over with a loud clang. “You’re awake! Oh my gosh you’re awake!” She glanced around hysterically and nodded, as if to herself. “I’ll get a doctor okay? Stay here and don’t go anywhere!”

Not that Kaito could anyway, but she was already out of the room before he could say a word.

A female doctor came in—her embroidered name on her white coat spelling Dr. Sawako—with Aoko not long later, and after checking his eyes with a flashlight and tweaking with the monitor, Dr. Sawako began telling how lucky he was, while listing down the types of bones and nerves she’d saved in the operation room, and warned something along the line that she knew he was more than reckless to get shot, given the other old injuries she found on his body too (oh great). Kaito had mostly tuned out for the rest of her ramblings until at the end, when she mentioned he would recover in no time, thanks to his age as well.

“It’s nice to be young,” the doctor said almost in a sigh as she tapped her pen on her chart. “But that doesn’t mean you’re allowed to risk doing any strenuous exercise for at least a month or so.” She glanced at Aoko and winked. “No worries. The reminder will come again soon enough.”

Kaito licked his lips. “When can I be discharged?” he said, which didn’t sound that bad. He thought his voice would be much more hoarse than this.

“Not today, definitely.” Dr. Sawako smiled cheekily. “You’ll know when we allow that to happen.”

 _Thanks, very informative,_ Kaito wished to say but settled for silence. He didn’t want to offend either of the women in the room with his sarcasm, one who would be responsible for signing his discharge papers and the other, who would probably shoot her laser beam glares at him till the end of his life.

Dr. Sawako then mentioned something about bringing in the antibiotics or whatever, but Kaito had officially tuned out. He stared at the ceiling, unblinking. Yes, the doctor knew there was a bullet in him, and yes, Aoko heard that loud and clear, but both of their reactions seemed almost… normal, as if to them Kaito only sprained his shoulder and wasn’t shot. Dr. Sawako’s reaction meant the police must have dealt with the _investigation_ in a satisfactory way, but Aoko’s reaction, or rather the lack of it… Kaito couldn’t understand.

Besides, why was _she_ here? Where was Jii? And where was…

The monitor above Kaito gave a sharp beep and Aoko and the doctor turned away from their light conversation, staring at him.

His poker face would not work well with this stupid machine on him.

Luckily they disregarded the sound and continued on, though thankfully the chat didn’t last long as Dr. Sawako eventually left the room. Kaito waited for the door to be opened again, maybe with an officer or two stomping in and holding a typical notebook each, ready to interrogate about the bullet in his body. None of that happened, as only Aoko returned beside his bed, settling on the chair she had picked up from the floor.

“You’re… awake,” Aoko said, almost disbelieving and relieved. A reminder, to her and him.

“As you can tell, Ahouko.”

The usual Aoko he knew would have been offended by his words, would have stuck out her tongue and called him _Bakaito_ for the sake of it, but her expression was eerily calm, saved for the slight furrow of her brows. 

“You’re always like this,” she said quietly under her breath. 

_Like what?_ Kaito wondered but didn’t ask. He had a feeling it might be an answer he wasn’t sure how to respond. 

“Why are you here?” he said instead.

Aoko parted her lips, and there it went—the crack in her facade. She must have realized it herself as she closed her mouth and bit her lower lip hesitantly. There was a short silence filled with the monitor beeps and the hums from the air-condition in the background, and Kaito waited for her answer anyway; Aoko must have stayed by his bedside for quite some time, and the patience was just fair.

Then Aoko suddenly stood up. 

For a moment when Kaito thought Aoko was randomly going to leave, she was actually making her way to the resting couch to take her bag that she had left there, a hand digging inside the contents for a while before returning to Kaito’s bed. It was uncomfortable for him to see whatever she had taken from his lying position, but Aoko’s observation wasn’t lacking at that as she helped elevate the head section of the bed with the remote without having him to ask. When the bed slowly raised, Kaito saw what was in her free hand.

He held his breath.

Sitting back down on her seat, Aoko placed the bloodied box of his playing cards on his lap, and even so, Shinichi’s signature was still visible as clear underneath the stains. 

“Before he left, Kudo-kun told me to return this to you,” Aoko said.

This completely didn’t answer Kaito's earlier question, but his throat was too numb to move, much less speak. He tentatively pulled out his left arm from under the blanket—also testing the pain and pressure he could exert—and reached for it. 

It could be his imagination, but when Kaito touched the box… he almost felt Shinichi’s warmth.

A new question formed: _Was he okay?_ Kaito wanted to ask—

_And tears._

_Everything was white._

He figured not.

Kaito was contemplating on prompting with another question when Aoko started talking, her eyes fixated on his lucky charm as she began recounting what happened; how Mina-chan had called to tell her about his hospital admittance, and then she found it was true when she saw Shinichi and Jii outside his operation theatre. She added an Inspector had dropped by, followed by Hakuba and Akako as they joined after; all of them playing the waiting game together. Then, after Kaito was finally out and wheeled into his ward, Hakuba and Shinichi left (which was when Shinichi handed Aoko the box). Jii was the only one that stayed for the past two nights after Kaito’s operation, and after much persuasion that he needed proper rest, Jii left and Aoko took over the duty for today, coincidentally being a Saturday.

In the midst of it all Aoko also brought up what Shinichi had told her that happened, about how Kaito was helping the detective on a case and got shot by a criminal or some sort. It was a bizarre yet believable story—given Shinichi’s reputation—but what Kaito thought was more amazing was his monitor didn’t betray him and show signs of erratic when he confirmed the story, knowing that this was yet another lie Aoko had to go through, and that Shinichi was responsible for the entirety of it.

Kaito owed them all too much. Jii, too. 

He only wondered why the hell was Hakuba and Akako there. And who was the Inspector? Someone affiliated to Shinichi? And he didn’t like the fact Hakuba and Shinichi left together. Kaito had a bad feeling about it, almost like the one he felt the night he first met Shinichi face-to-face, courtesy of Hakuba's meddling, too. 

And now that Shinichi knew about him… _Wait a second._ Shit. What was Shinichi even doing near his heist in the first place? What if—

“Do you have anything to say?” Aoko said, her voice laced with a form of solemnity that didn’t fit her.

Kaito’s thoughts were all temporarily shelved aside for the _current_ problem on hand. He managed to keep his frown in check, briefly wondering if he really had been only unconscious for two days. Rather it felt like two years had passed, as the _Aoko_ sitting before him looked—seemed—different… Then again, it took Kaito one night and an accidental flip of his dad’s portrait to change his entire life so it wasn’t all that exaggerating either. 

“Is there something you want me to say?” Kaito asked. Cautious and steady. Like walking on glass. 

_It couldn’t be…?_

Surprisingly, Aoko shook her head. “It’s okay, if you don’t want to tell me anything now. I just—” She pursed her lips, her body slouched after a deflated sigh. “I owe you a thank you.”

Kaito’s fingers pressed into the box for comfort. “This is getting weird.” He gave a small and controlled fake laugh, one that wouldn’t aggravate his injuries. “Why are you suddenly thanking me?”

Aoko’s face was almost blank. 

“You’re giving me the creeps now, Ahouko,” Kaito tried again.

That jab didn’t work either as Aoko—still looking expressionless—lowered her eyes to her hands on her thighs. “They say actions speak louder than words, but you, being the unique one, love having your actions contradict your words instead.” She sighed, her lips giving a quiver. “And sometimes I don’t know whether to hate you or not for that.”

“What are you—”

Kaito was silenced when Aoko looked up at him, her eyes seemingly filled with what he (foolishly) hoped were not tears. 

“But truth to be told I’m a hypocrite for thinking that,” Aoko went on, “because when I was sitting outside your operation room and waiting for the doctor to deliver the good or bad news, I couldn’t remember a time when I ever said my true feelings, or tell you how thankful I am towards you.

“You… You always acted as if you don’t care and say all kinds of stupid things, and yet you’ve always turned around to do the little and big things to make me happy in the end.”

It was a miracle the monitor didn’t react to the squeeze in Kaito’s chest. “Aoko—”

“So thank you, Kuroba Kaito, for making me happy.” Aoko smiled, her eyes still gleaming. “And now I need you to know that I want _you_ to be happy too. Because you deserve to be.”

Then, without saying anything else, Aoko nodded her head at Kaito’s hand—not explicitly at the box or his timer—as if finding and meeting his soulmate would make him happy like she wanted.

She wasn’t wrong.

Kaito should smile, should react in a way to show he took her words to heart, but he couldn’t even look into Aoko’s eyes; couldn’t bear to wager if what she said would end up being just a memory or the forever truth, because... because would she still want him to be happy once she knew the things he had said and done were a pack of lies? 

_“Do you have anything to say?”_

He had, and he didn’t.

_“You’re part of my concern, KID.”_

And if Kaito deserved to be happy, Shinichi deserved to be happier—

Aoko sniffed, crossing her arms. “You’re doing that face again.” 

Seeing the usual and annoyed-sounding version of Aoko comparatively to the serious one was a joy and comforting familiarity to fall back in, and Kaito couldn’t help but smile, an effortless and genuine one at that.

“What’s my face doing?” he dared to ask, especially so when he’s all smiley right now.

Aoko continued looking at him with her iconic sneer, but none of it was reflected in her words; she mumbled, almost resigned, “It’s like you’re about to go against the world alone.”

 _When you’re not alone, Bakaito_ floated, the words unsaid but hanging in the sanitised air of the ward.

 _But I will be in the end,_ Kaito thought, the words unsaid and ringing deep inside the back of his head. 

Maybe this was his problem, he realized. He never gave Aoko the chance, and he never gave Shinichi the chance; he never gave them a chance to prove how much he meant to them. Kaito _could_ try, but would it be worth risking losing them in two different but equally heart-breaking ways? Aoko might hate him, and perhaps never talk to him again, and Shinichi… Kaito couldn’t imagine him going through the seconds if Shinichi was the one inside the operation room—

He refused to finish that thought. Instead, another voice came through.

_“And your advice sucks.”_

_“You’ll never know until you try, no?”_

Kaito wrinkled his nose, totally not appreciating Hakuba’s words echoing in his head, even if it seemed to make the most sense right now. 

Then, from his side-long glance, Kaito noticed Aoko was still staring at him, or rather watching him, with a gaze she must have learnt from hanging around too much with Hakuba. 

“Anyway did I miss anything from school?” Kaito asked.

Kaito didn’t have the will to finish crossing the glass bridge with Aoko, and the only way left was by jumping off it, though luckily, he managed to find a boat underneath—a safe conversation—and was relieved she was willing to hop on it with him; Aoko had grinned, quick to adjust to the change of topic, and started blabbering about their chemistry class, and that Natsuki had almost burned down the lab during an experiment. Kaito had a painful laugh, but it didn’t last after Aoko told him he also had a bunch of weekend homework their teachers left for him. 

As selfish as he could be, Kaito wanted to leave whatever that was left of his courage and strength to walk across the glass bridge with Shinichi. There was still time for Aoko to climb back up to the ground and cross the bridge again in the future. But there wasn’t time for Shinichi; Shinichi already knew about _him_.

Pushing away his thoughts, Kaito was just glad the story Aoko had started, something about Keiko and her new boyfriend, was enticing enough to distract her from noticing the sudden sharp beep coming from his monitor.

* * *

Despite his life being mostly intertwined with crimes, Shinichi rarely went to the hospital. Not that it was a great thing to be there, but at least there was _hope_ , found in the letter h for hospital; because even if justice was brought and that one truth had prevailed, the life lost still couldn’t be returned to place. 

And Shinichi had never been more grateful for the exception of this case—this _case_ , which was technically under Inspector Megure’s supervision, and technically Shinichi shouldn’t be involved, just like how he was banned from being involved with Kaitou KID.

But Shinichi wasn’t the one to care about the technicalities, and if they didn’t know that now, they would know it soon.

Inspector Megure already did. 

So here Shinichi was, standing in the big, metallic elevator as he waited for it to ascend to the floor he wanted to go. There had been multiple stops along the way, but it was okay. More than okay, actually. He was glad for the little additional seconds he had to calm the swirls in his gut.

“Thank you young man,” the old lady said as she tapped her walking cane out while Shinichi held onto the button. And then the door closed, leaving him the only passenger left. 

Shinichi swallowed, watching the red arrow moving on the elevator monitor. Up, and up…

Once the door opened, Shinichi trudged towards Kaito’s ward.

Inspector Megure had called on Saturday to tell him Kaito was awake; and for the following nights, while also adding onto the previous days, Shinichi hadn’t been able to sleep, having spent the time brooding in his library, the blue rose still kept in his drawer and unopened (he couldn’t bear to think how the rose probably looked now, and he didn’t want to associate that to how Kaito could be). 

Then, Monday came and the lessons had never dragged so much in Shinichi’s life, to a point that he hated every second of it, which, maybe, might have triggered his nerves to muster enough courage to call Inspector Megure after school, checking if Kaito was still in the hospital. He said he still was, and Shinichi was grateful the Inspector didn’t ask why before they hung up. It was sort of obvious anyway.

 _“Where are you going?”_ Ran had asked when Shinichi came back into the classroom to pick up his bag after the call. 

_“To find my soulmate.”_

Sonoko had laughed. Ran only blinked.

Shinichi couldn’t blame them for their reactions. They probably thought it was a joke—a joke that he wouldn’t crack like that—and yet this was the truest thing he’d ever said. It still felt a little weird when he allowed the words to roll off his tongue without the usual disdain, but he believed he would grow accustomed to it.

He really believed he would.

From the end of the corridor, Shinichi spotted a nurse closing the door of Kaito’s ward and continued to distractedly write something on her chart as she returned to the nurse station. Kaito was in his ward, then; not discharged in that short period after Inspector Megure’s call, or off to anywhere for an X-ray scan and such.

Shinichi couldn’t back down now.

He reached the door. 

Two heartbeats in one. 

He slid it open.

There was a sound of rummaging, like cloth against cloth before it suddenly stopped, almost too unnaturally. Still standing in front of the door, Shinichi frowned. There was an inconvenient wall hindering his view from the bed, so he closed the door behind him and tentatively took a step, and another, until he was standing in the middle of the large ward.

The support machines and heart monitor Shinichi saw on the first day were all gone. Kaito was solely recuperating on his own, and he was currently lying on his bed with his blanket over his chest, his body unmoving like he was ironically dead.

Shinichi snorted.

Stirring a little, Kaito peeled open his eyes. Then he choked, and groaned as he reached a hand for the shoulder that Shinichi last saw was bloodied and—

“It’s you?” Kaito stared.

“You should’ve covered your neck; I can see your pyjamas unbuttoned.” Shinichi approached the bed and lifted the blanket. Kaito scowled and shifted to bend his knees, but there was nowhere for him to hide the jeans he was wearing.

Shinichi raised an eyebrow. “Planning to go somewhere?”

“Excuse me?” Kaito tugged the blanket down out of Shinichi’s grasp, covering himself and all of the _evidence_. “What if I wasn’t wearing any pants?”

“Your jeans are dark under the blanket.”

“Seriously?” Kaito sighed. They stared again, the silence ticking instead of seconds, before Kaito slowly helped himself up to sit up on the bed, the blanket slipping off his shoulders and pooling on his lap. His hospital pyjamas were unbuttoned from the chest up and Shinichi could see his white bandage underneath… He turned his head away, eyes finding something else for distraction. 

There was a resting couch leaning against the wall under the windows. Shinichi approached it and slumped on the leather seat, placing his school bag beside him.

While sitting against his upright pillow, Kaito buttoned up his pyjamas. “Why are you here?” he asked, hands and eyes busy focusing on his buttoning. He was doing it exceptionally slow, or maybe his wound didn’t allow him to do it any faster; Shinichi couldn’t tell. But at least he seemed okay, looked okay, and his timer—

Then Kaito glanced at him, and Shinichi nearly jolted, nearly, and looked away again, at the same time realizing he hadn’t answered Kaito’s question. A stupid question, rather.

Shinichi stared at the floor. “Why don’t you guess?”

Kaito gave him a once-over. “You got a toothache?”

“That’s for the dentist.” 

“Right.”

Ever since the truth was out, it was hard for Shinichi to see Kaito and KID as two different people, which made him wonder how the hell he had not spotted the signs before. Was this also the problem of being unable to unsee something? Everything that Shinichi saw of Kaito now—his movements, his tone, and even the simple flicker of his blue eyes—all looked so calculative and precise like KID. Or maybe it was the other way around.

“Where were you about to escape to?” Shinichi repeated his question.

Kaito froze, his fingers touching the last button on his collar. 

“Did I ruin your plans?” Shinichi continued.

Kaito recovered with a soft laugh as he finished buttoning up his pyjamas and leaned heavily into his pillow. “You actually made my job easier.”

Shinichi blinked.

“The next round of checks won’t be in another two hours and I have to come back before then.” Kaito’s lips twisted into a grin. “But you came to me instead.” 

Shinichi widened his eyes, realization hitting him even before Kaito said: “I was planning to find you.”

“...Why?”

“Do I need a reason?”

“I figured there might be; for you to risk so many things just to…” Shinichi shrugged. “Just to find me.”

Kaito patted a hand over his blanketed lap. Shinichi squinted his eyes for a moment. Something was bulging underneath… 

“Will you believe me if I say I don’t have a reason?” 

“No.”

Kaito chuckled. “Yeah, you’re right. I do have a reason.” He looked at Shinichi, blue eyes piercing rather than a gaze. “I wanted to see you.”

“Isn’t it the same thing?”

“Then why are _you_ here?”

 _“I wanted to see you.”_ Shit. The back of Shinichi’s neck grew warm.

_I’m here to talk about our timers. I’m here to talk about your lies. I’m here to talk about the men in black. I’m here to—_

_“I wanted to see you.”_

Shinichi had nothing to say. 

And having nothing to say, Shinichi _had_ to find something to say. Thankfully he’d gotten one.

“So if I’ve come ten minutes later, we’ll miss each other,” Shinichi scoffed and raked a hand through his hair. “I guess... for once there’s no bad timings.” 

Kaito showed no signs like he minded Shinichi avoiding his question. “Maybe fate’s starting to take pity on us.” 

Shinichi snorted. “You think so?”

“Anything’s possible.” Kaito smiled, and just like his eyes, they spoke more than what he’d ever said. Faint traces, Shinichi could tell he was tired, being bed-ridden of course, but there was something more to his weariness. Something that an internationally wanted thief might go through, or something even deeper than that.

He wondered if Nakamori had come before him. Nakamori, the girl who knew Kaito more than Shinichi, and the girl who definitely had a special place in his heart. Shinichi wasn’t jealous, no. He knew what Ran was to him, and where he should place her in his heart too. Shinichi was just… 

They had already lost quite a bit of time, and with Hakuba’s proposal, Shinichi wasn’t sure how much more time he would waste. He owed it to Kaito to restart everything between them; Shinichi was the one that ended the what ifs and could-have-been without a consideration in the first place, and—

“I see what Aoko means now.”

Shinichi raised his head and blinked. “What?”

“The look on your face”—Kaito chuckled—“like you’re about to go against the world alone.”

Shinichi cleared his throat and straightened on his seat, eradicating all the evidence of what Kaito meant. “Look,” Shinichi began, his fingers drumming on his lap, “the thing is, we need to talk.”

“Figured as much.”

“But the truth is I don’t know how.” Shinichi darted a glance at Kaito. “I’m… honestly not good at this.”

Kaito grinned sheepishly. “Same.” 

“I’m being serious.”

Kaito’s smile fell as he looked offended. “I’m not kidding either.” He lowered his gaze and drew circles with his finger on the blanket. 

That wasn’t going as well as Shinichi had hoped, and a bit of him had wished Ran was here so she could knock him some sense and give him advice… which then reminded him of the walk they had after school a long time ago, when Ran confronted whether he liked her more than friends. Even if it was a lie back then and that it was true right now, regardless, the conversation that Ran forced Shinichi to engage during the walk was what broke the ice and eventually stabilized their friendship.

This was it. Admittance. Opening up to each other. Speaking.

Speaking.

“I’ll start.” Shinichi stood up. Hands in pocket, he trudged towards Kaito’s bed and sat on the edge of it. 

Closer. Break the barrier. Build the connection.

Connection.

Kaito’s eyes followed him quietly the entire time.

“I’m sorry. For the things I did and didn’t do.” Shinichi smoothed the blanket under him and started drawing a circle with a finger too; it calmed him more than he expected, and that helped him to continue, “I’m sorry for the words I shouldn’t said, and sorry for not doing my part as the other soulmate. I should have known.”

Shinichi saw Kaito’s hand had stilled.

Kaito looked up at Shinichi, meeting his eyes.

“Then I have to apologise too,” Kaito said, his voice soft and sending a strange feeling in Shinichi’s stomach. “I’m sorry for the lies, for hiding the truth, and for pushing you away when I had the chance to change something about us.” A sad smile. “I’m sorry for hurting you that night, and that’s kinda my biggest regret in life till date.”

That night. 

_It’s okay? You’re forgiven?_ No, not really. Shinichi didn’t have the confidence to say he had truly forgiven Kaito, and he wasn’t expecting Kaito to do it in return. It was unfair to both of them; they might still need the time for this, even if they already had lost enough of time between them. He still wasn’t even sure if he was ready to take the probably wilted blue rose out the drawer, like plucking a literal huge thorn out of its heart. 

“So... What now?” Kaito raised an eyebrow. 

Blinking out of his thoughts, Shinichi stared at him. “What?”

“Are we taking turns at this?” Kaito smirked. “Then it’s technically your turn to talk.”

Shinichi pulled a face. “No. But do you have any other ideas?”

Kaito laughed, grimaced halfway at it, and managed a smile at the end as he rubbed his wounded shoulder. “We really suck at this.”

“No kidding.”

They exchanged a shake of heads and a couple of awkward smiles. No, not exactly awkward. It was like a couple on their first date. Two long-lost friends meeting each other again. They were drawing closer together than apart, like a circle where one end would meet the other.

“Or maybe there’s something I should tell you,” Kaito said with the same softness again. Shinichi suspected it might be his fragile voice. 

Shinichi still had the men in black and Hakuba’s proposal to explain, but he was more than willing to let Kaito take the lead first. “What is it?”

Kaito hummed, as if considering if he should take back his words, and then shrugged. “A little something to explain the mess too, I guess.”

Shinichi had a feeling it wasn’t as little as Kaito claimed it was, but he didn’t say a word, only scooting himself closer to Kaito and allowed his eyes to convey that he was ready to hear whatever that was to be said. 

And bracing himself, Kaito told him. 

* * *

“What the hell is taking KID so long?” Heiji clicked his tongue and moved his binoculars around, trying to spot something white in the dark sky. Despite having little to no city lights and standing on the roof of one of the higher-level buildings around the area, there were still little stars seen in the sky as compared to the great Osaka. Hah. Of course this would be the case when his home was still the best— Okay. That wasn’t the focus for tonight, but Heiji still got to get the facts out right.

Hakuba Saguru was sitting cross-legged on the floor and leaning against the roof ledge in front of Heiji, his fingers tapping rapidly away on his laptop. “There’s news and tweets that says KID just escaped,” Hakuba said aloud. “He’s coming anytime now.”

“Finally,” Heiji drawled and continued looking through the binoculars. “Did Snake strike tonight?”

Hakuba shrugged. “The last time Kuroba contacted, he said the chance was pretty low.”

“So it’s a one stone to one bird effort huh,” Heiji muttered. “Came all the way from Osaka just ta’ carry these binoculars and nothing else.”

Hakuba glanced up from his laptop. “But you did enjoy your time solving that murder with Kudo-kun this afternoon, no?”

Heiji flicked a gaze at the blonde. He always and forever hated the way Hakuba talked; acting all poised and polite when his words were either laced with insults or sarcasm underneath. Even though Kudo didn’t think that way, at least Kuroba was on his side for this—their distaste for Hakuba was one of the few things they had in common.

Since Hakuba’s attention was already on his laptop, Heiji only sneered back in response before returning his attention to the binoculars. 

White. 

“He's here.” Heiji took a few steps towards the ledge and directed the lenses to the road below. “Inspector Nakamori’s close on his tail too.” 

“Good.” Hakuba nodded and tapped rapidly into his keyboard again. (Hakuba could be annoying, Heiji thought he should still give him credit for his professionalism.) “Is Kudo-kun in place?”

“Ya, I see him at the backdoor.” Heiji had moved his binoculars to the warehouse just in front of their building, the spot where Kudo stood as he ripped the wax mask off his face. For the past three weeks Kudo was in and out of a disguise—courtesy of KID’s talent—and was currently playing undercover as a packer in the said warehouse (though it wasn’t the Black Organisation's main _or_ biggest warehouse operations). The only legal thing about what they’d packed was probably only the box itself. 

This was entirely a trap, as Kudo planned. A fake coincidence, like what KID was going to make it to be. This way, there would be no traces or evidence for _them_ to suspect and kill anyone for the indirect whistleblowing. Indeed there was too much effort to bring down one chain at a time, but both Hakuba and Heiji knew better than to trust everyone in the police too (oh, maybe they _did_ agree on something for once). So here they were, ensuring their own success because they were independent like that.

It would all be worth it. For the sake of the world and peace.

And, uh, maybe for Kazuha too? 

Heiji returned his sight to the sky, following the white prism slowly descending. “KID’s landing!”

The faint, yet growing sound of the siren was enough of a proof too. Hakuba placed the laptop on the ground and joined Heiji’s side.

“Okay, Kudo and Kuroba have met.” Heiji nodded, updating Hakuba as best he could; they only had one binoculars between them after all—

“Oh _God_!” Heiji tore his eyes off the binoculars and blanched. “Are they freaking kissing in the middle of this?!” 

Hakuba raised his eyebrows and took Heiji’s binoculars to check. “I believe Kudo-kun is sensible enough to— okay, you’re right.” Hakuba sighed. “They are definitely kissing.”

“I’m suing them for what they have done to my eyes ya!”

“Technically we’re sort of spying on them now so—” 

“Can you just agree with me for once?” 

“Ok. Sure.” Hakuba smiled and returned the binoculars, not that Heiji wanted to use it anymore. “Let’s sue them.”

“Thank you very _much_.”

.end.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Remember to show some love to Luci's [animation](https://lantaniel.tumblr.com/post/625299469740687360/my-art-for-the-kaishinbigbang-2020-d-fic-by) as well :D


End file.
